African leaders, international community must act on commitments made at London family planning summit

Aug 10 2012

In this UNFPA opinion piece, Babatunde Osotimehin, U.N. under-secretary-general and UNFPA executive director, and Sharon Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, reflect on last month's London Summit on Family Planning, where "leaders from 18 African countries made unprecedented commitments -- financially and politically -- to strengthen their family planning programs," and highlight "[a] new study by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA [that] shows there has been minimal progress in addressing the contraceptive needs of African women during the past four years." They discuss uneven progress "in meeting the demand for contraceptive services" across the continent and write, "Now it is up to all of Africa's leaders and the international community to do their part through a sustained commitment to improving the provision of contraceptive services" (8/7).