Population, Development, and Family Planning in Francophone West Africa: The Urgency for Action
| |
 |
| |
President Blaise Compaoré, Burkina Faso. |
The international conference, “Population, Development, and Family Planning in Francophone West Africa: The Urgency for Action,” was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso February 8-10, 2011. The conference brought together delegations from eight countries in the region (Benin, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Burkina) and provided a forum for identifying concrete solutions to meet the need for family planning in the region. The conference was funded and organized by the French and U.S. Governments in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This represents an unprecedented collaboration between the two countries around health and family planning issues in West Africa.
Major outcomes of this unique and important conference included:
- Extraordinary high-level political support. President Compaoré not only opened the conference, he also, on the second day, unexpectedly invited a select group of U.S. and French Government representatives, donors, and country team representatives to meet at the presidential palace. At this meeting, President Compaoré pledged to continue his strong leadership in Burkina Faso and at the regional level.
| |
 |
| (From left to right) Christian Fong, Regional Health Office Director, USAID West Africa Regional Office; Scott Radloff, Director of the Office of Population/Reproductive Health; and, Pierre Jaudoin, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the conference. Source: USAID |
 |
| Didier Maze, Deputy Chief of Mission at the French Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Scott Radloff, USAID. Source: USAID |
- Strong financial and technical support from a new partner in family planning. The French Government pledged 100 million euros for family planning over the next five years and committed to putting health specialists with skills in family planning programs in each of the countries where they will be working.
- Concerted action. Each of the country delegations developed action plans for strengthening family planning programs and policies in their countries, focusing on the priorities that will most rapidly advance their programs.
- Strong statement of commitment. The country participants also issued a call to action through the Ouagadougou Declaration. Highlights include:
- Systematic integration of reproductive health and family planning into national development plans and economic growth and poverty reduction strategies.
- Reduction of maternal mortality and unmet need for family planning by 25 percent by 2015 for the West African Francophone region.
- Formalization of donor commitment through creation of an active partnership. The donors also issued a joint statement of commitment and devoted a fourth day to the conference to develop plans for improving donor coordination and providing support at the country and regional levels. They also are finalizing joint guidance to countries for action, developing a country matrix showing donor contributions, and writing a report of the conference and donor meeting.
Additional Resources
|
