Brussels, 10/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - There will be a new package of EU aid for family planning in developing countries worth €23 million, EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs announced on Tuesday 10 July - the day before the world family planning summit which is taking place in London on 11 July (see EUROPE 10649). The summit aims to enable 120 million women to have access to contraception, along with access to reproductive health services and information.
“Helping to provide family planning services is one of the best investments that a country can make to its future. In today's world, all women must have the ability to choose the size of their families. It is about promoting gender equality and women's rights; but it is also about protecting maternal and child health”, Piebalgs said in a press release.
Of the €23 million that the European Commission will give, €8m will go to the UN Family Planning Agency in order to help some of the world's poorest countries provide information on family planning, condoms and contraceptives. The other €15m will be made available for NGOs and other civil society groups to promote family planning services.
In developing countries over 200 million women and girls who want to delay or avoid becoming pregnant are not using effective methods of contraception, which leads to over 75 million unintended pregnancies every year. According to UN estimates, if the 215 million women and girls in developing countries who are deprived of access to contraception in developing countries were to use modern methods of family planning, the number of unintended pregnancies would decrease my more than 70% and nearly 100,000 maternal deaths and 600,000 newborn deaths could be avoided every year.
Between 2007-2011, the European Commission committed €86m per year to support family planning in developing countries. (AN/transl.fl)