When the International Conference on Family Planning — scheduled to take place in Indonesia this week — was postponed by the eruption of Mount Rinjani and a subsequent ash cloud, the news was met first with disappointment, but swiftly with resolve. Organizations working in reproductive health know from long experience that even the best laid plans can never be taken for granted.
Our starting point is this: the right to contraception is universal. Yet the financial resources needed to satisfy the desire of women, men and young people who want to control their fertility are far from assured. This challenge grows every day as the largest youth cohort in history comes of age.
As we move into a new era of development, the world will face tough choices about how to spend its finite resources to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Many of these choices will fall to governments, yet few leaders of developing economies might think first of prioritizing investment in preventative health, especially contraception, to assure their countries’ continued development.
About the author
Megan Elliott
As vice president for strategy and development, Megan Elliott is responsible for advancing strategic engagement and new program development across the global partnership. She brings over 10 years of experience in designing and implementing complex service delivery and social marketing programs for health in Africa and Asia. She has held multiple strategic, programmatic and technical management roles including long-term field positions in Uganda and Tanzania, and headquarters roles in Paris, Washington, D.C., and London. She has extensive experience developing collaborative relationships with bilateral and multilateral institutional donors, private companies, host country governments and private foundations.
