With its many partners, Advance Family Planning will persuade policy-makers to honor their London Summit on Family Planning commitments and, in general, seek increased political commitment and funding from public and private sources for family planning at the global, regional, country and local levels. AFP’s focus countries are Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, as well as the Francophone West Africa region. AFP’s programmatic work in India ended in 2019.
Advance Family Planning (AFP) continues to make significant progress against its commitment to persuade policy-makers to honor their Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) commitments and, in general, seek increased political commitment and funding for family planning at the global, regional, country, and local levels.
From November 2018 to October 2019 AFP achieved 524 advocacy wins, bringing its 10-year total to 1,845. National and subnational governments invested $20.7 million in family planning, bringing the total amount of funds AFP has mobilized (including from the private sector) to $88 million since 2012. Since November 1, 2018, AFP’s advocacy with national and local decision makers produced 620 budget allocations totaling $20.7 million for family planning across all levels of government. Though overall funding was slightly lower, the last year saw the highest allocations from subnational geographies to date, with over $13.2 million mobilized from subnational budgets. This represents almost 64% of all AFP funding mobilized.
Of AFP’s 524 advocacy wins, 40% led to new policies or the implementation of existing policies to improve access to a full range of quality family planning services, including those for married and unmarried youth. For a full list of AFP advocacy wins from 2009-2018 please see the attached advocacy wins booklet. In our eight focus countries, 339 local advocacy working groups—nearly all (90%) with formal government recognition—led the advocacy effort. Most (72%) receive local financial support for miscellaneous items like tea and transportation and all 3,800 working group members work pro bono.
AFP partners continued to diffuse the AFP approach and provided ongoing technical support to other civil society organizations. We can account for 78 more organizations using the AFP SMART advocacy approach in our eight focus countries, two graduated countries, and in 15 countries that received Opportunity Fund support, bringing the total since 2012 to 239. Skilled AFP SMART facilitators helped 262 staff of the six international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs)—Amref, Jhpiego, Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, Marie Stopes International, Pathfinder International, and Population Council—across 32 countries apply AFP’s approach through SMART advocacy objectives identified during workshops.
Regional efforts in East Africa and Francophone West Africa centered on supporting new locally-led coalitions and partners to advocate for improvements in young people’s access to contraception. With FP2020 and the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit (OPCU), AFP organized a March meeting of country delegations to jump-start local advocacy using AFP SMART.
AFP’s accomplishments provide a strong base for protecting gains post-2020 and helping governments achieve their renewed FP2020 commitments.
