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Posted on December 26, 2012
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Bloomberg School of Public Health Receives $28 Million for 'Advance Family Planning' Initiative
Bloomberg School of Public Health Receives $28 Million for 'Advance Family Planning' Initiative
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has announced grants totaling $28 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates, David and Lucile Packard, and William and Flora Hewlett foundations to expand the Advance Family Planning advocacy initiative within the school's Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health.
The grants will support the initiative over the next five years as it works with partners to improve access to and use of family planning services, information, and supplies in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. To that end, the initiative will work to boost funds, reduce policy barriers, and increase the importance of family planning at the global, regional, national, and sub-national levels.
The initiative seeks to increase resources and political commitment for quality family planning programs as part of the London Summit on Family Planning, or FP2020. By 2020, the summit and its collaborators aim to dramatically increase the number of women and girls in the world's poorest countries able to use contraceptive resources without coercion or discrimination.
"Leaders around the world increasingly recognize how important family planning is to health, development, and human rights," said Duff Gillespie, principal investigator and a professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. "Combined with the committed leadership of Melinda Gates and [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron who spearheaded FP2020, we have the potential to radically transform the lives and well-being of women and families. Advance Family Planning has demonstrated that effective, collaborative advocacy is at the heart of realizing that potential. We are grateful for the support of all three foundations and those leaders who have committed to invest in family planning policies and programs as part of FP2020."
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