Family planning in Africa and here

DAKAR, SENEGAL—Some 2,200 participants from 88 countries are in this seaside city for the Second International Conference on Family Planning. Invited by Women’s Edition, a program of the Population Reference Bureau that puts together women journalists from around the world for two years of seminars and study tours, I made the 18-hour journey (with an overnight stop) via Dubai, and the next day joined the rest of the group on an out-of-town visit to Thies (pronounced Ches), a region just outside this capital city.

“Life-changing” is among the terms I’ve used to describe this trip, specifically our visits to the villages of Keur Simbara and Saam Njaay and our conversations with executive director Molly Melching and the staff of Tostan, a word in the Wolof language that means “breakthrough” or “spread out.” I will write more about Tostan’s work in “community-led development,” especially in trying to bring an end to “female genital cutting” and child marriages, in later columns.

In the meantime, there is this bustling, confusing conference to cover. At the opening plenary Tuesday afternoon, the amphitheater at the Le Meridien President Hotel was already full to overflowing that participants seated on the steps were asked to move over to air-conditioned tents on the garden outside, where huge monitors allowed them to listen to the speakers.

Most prominent among them was Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who wandered frequently from his prepared speech to welcome the participants to the world’s “largest-ever family planning conference” and express his commitment to promote family planning in his country and commit the funds necessary to scale-up the program.

Paying tribute to the “women of Africa,” Wade said that if governments in Africa are today working toward gender parity in society and government affairs, it was “a major battle won by women.”

Family planning, he said, was a “personal responsibility,” commenting with some laughter and while glancing at his wife, that he wanted to call on young men “to reduce the number of your wives, reduce the number of your children.” But more seriously, he asserted that promoting reproductive health among young people should be based on “training and free choices.”

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“AFRICA is ready to move,” declared Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the UN Fund for Population, the highest-ranking UN official at the conference. Osotimehin, who was former health minister of Nigeria, said that while Africa continues to be the region that lags behind the rest of the world in vital health indicators, its peoples, especially the youth, are raring to turn things around. Some 60-70 percent of the population of Africa is below 30 years old, he said, and if governments wished programs to move forward, they would need to listen to the youth. “We cannot plan for them.”

This was essentially the same message delivered by two youth leaders: Souadou Ndaye and Mohammed Barry. “Sixteen million adolescents become mothers every year,” noted Ndaye, calling for “innovation” in devising approaches to bring the benefits of reproductive health to young women. For his part, Barry asserted that “sex is an essential part of human development,” and urged leaders to be less judgmental and start listening to young people’s views and preferences. “Let us act as eloquently as we speak,” he urged, noting that “every nation which has a successful family planning program is a nation that will prosper.”

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ALSO joining the speakers was Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the conference’s organizers.

Speaking via a video message, Gates declared that “family planning is important to me personally,” and observed that “social investments in family planning pay huge dividends” in terms of both personal and national development.

She noted with some alarm that 250 million women around the world “don’t want to have another child but have no access to family planning.” Aside from these women having more children than they desired and thus halting their own dreams for themselves and their families, such realities also impact on national policies and resources. “Family planning access is a cost-effective way to foster development,” she added. “We have the momentum now,” said Gates, “it is time for us to push harder.”

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FROM Senegal, let me send a shout-out to the women and their men supporters camped out on the grounds of the Batasan in the “Occupy for RH” action.

I understand we have only this week (and I hope I am not too late) to push for the passage of the RH bill. As I wrote earlier, the bill has gathered the necessary number of supporters among the representatives to get it passed, but the House leadership is sticking by its position that the long list of interpellators must be exhausted before they can put the measure to a vote.

This recalls the fate of the bill in the last Congress, when then Speaker Prospero Nograles kept assuring the bill’s sponsors that he would facilitate its passage (then as now, they had the needed numbers), while “dribbling” the ball on orders of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

What is it that the House leaders, led by Speaker Sonny Belmonte, have to fear about putting an end to the increasingly inane debates and having the congresspeople vote on the bill? Who and what are they afraid of?

There is really very little chance of resolving with finality the issues that opponents keep raising when they debate the RH bill’s sponsors. But as this conference proves, every day of delay in bringing the benefits of reproductive health—including family planning—to our women and children is a day of missed chances and lost opportunities. Pass the RH bill now!