Women’s health care company Organon and the United Nations Population Fund, the global body’s sexual and reproductive health agency, share a vision of powering a world where the health of women and girls is prioritized and fulfilled across their lifetimes. Together, they are partnering to accelerate progress toward our goals and reduce unplanned pregnancies globally, with a particular focus on young people. The global collaboration represents a portfolio of approaches in three areas: innovation, access and education, and sustainability and financing.
On the sidelines of the Women Deliver 2023 conference in Kigali, Rwanda, Organon and UNFPA launched a joint initiative focused on reducing the number of unintended pregnancies globally and empowering women, and especially young people, to take charge of their own health. The initiative is a key aspect of “Her Plan is Her Power,” a three-year effort by Organon to accelerate progress when it comes to unplanned pregnancy.
According to UNFPA, every year almost half of all pregnancies, some 121 million, are unintended.
An absence of contraceptive options is part of the problem, explained Ian McFarlane, director of the division for communication and strategic partnerships at UNFPA. “There are 257 million women who would like to access family planning contraceptives and to be able to manage their choice about when, if, and how many children to have,” he said. However, their needs are currently unmet. McFarlane said the consequences are far reaching and there is a critical need to address the gap. “It’s a real tragedy in my view that in 2023 so many women are unable to exercise their rights and choices,” he said.
The Her Plan is Her Power program aims to change that by fueling action at both the global and community levels in areas where the burden is highest and where there are “deep contraceptive deserts,” said Geralyn Ritter, executive vice president of corporate affairs, sustainability and ESG at Organon. The initiative is part of Organon’s commitment to helping prevent 120 million unintended pregnancies by 2030.
Organon together with UNFPA, Ritter said, will focus on creating innovative solutions, accelerating access and education, and advancing financing and sustainability efforts focused on unplanned pregnancy.
“One thing I’m excited about is that I know we have a shared commitment to impact on the ground — measurable impact on the lives of real women and girls that we can see, that we can hear, that we can talk to,” she said, referencing partnership work already underway, like the program to prevent teen pregnancies in Xochimilco, Mexico.
Sitting down with Devex in Kigali following the signing of a memorandum of understanding, both McFarlane and Ritter laid out the driving factors and consequences of unintended pregnancies, why it’s crucial to make progress and reduce the number, and how their partnership seeks to achieve those goals.
Watch the interview here.
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