ARROW and some of our partners will be at the Interntional Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) being held in Nusa Dua, Indonesia next week from January 25-28.
We will be live tweeting as always from various interventions at ICFP so follow us on Twitter on @ARROW_Women.
But more excitingly, we will be live streaming some of our interventions listed below on Periscope so keep an eye on our Twitter feed for alerts.
You can also stop by our exhibition booth #47 at the conference where publications and other resources by ARROW and partners will be featured and disseminated. Don’t forget to say hello to Uma from ARROW who will be at the booth.
Some of our interventions during ICFP will be as follows.
Advancing the Goal of Universal Access
2016 Quality Innovation Challenge by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Tuesday, January 26: 1:20 pm
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation will host the second Quality Innovation Challenge at the 2016 International Conference on Family Planning, held January 25-28 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. The Foundation supports visionary providers, advocates, and researchers working to ensure everyone’s right to quality care. Change of this kind requires creative thinking and risk-taking. They are looking for champions with innovative ideas to improve quality in sexual and reproductive health and empower women and girls in new ways. Ideas submitted during the lunch session will be eligible for consideration at the Quality Innovation Challenge lunch event.
Location: Singaraha Hall 2
Panel: SRHR indicators in a post-2015 world: where we are and where we need to go
Tuesday, January 26: 2:30–3:50 pm
Moderator: Alanna Galati
Presenter: Chelsea Polis
This panel will review and assess the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators relating to sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) that have emerged from the official UN process thus far. The panel will compare that list with the recommendations made by the Guttmacher-led consultative process, consisting of input from advocates and technical experts, including ones from the Global South. Since late 2014, this group has been working to forge a consensus around key indicators that are measurable, while also taking into account high-priority policy directions for the field. The panel will also provide perspective on the SRHR indicators—about what has already been accepted and what is still left out—with expert perspectives shared from the Asia-Pacific region as well as a donor government. The discussion during the panel and with attendees will focus on next steps to influence the remaining indicators process, how to hold governments (of donor and recipient countries) accountable, and ways to keep up the pressure for better measurement to advance a more comprehensive and progressive SRHR agenda.
Location: Kintamani 6
Panel: What is our responsibility to women when contraception fails or is not used?
Tuesday, January 26: 4:20–5:40 pm
Panelist: Gilda Sedgh
This panel will look at the extent to which women who do not want to get pregnant do not have access to contraception, use contraceptives that fail, use methods ineffectively or erratically, or discontinue use. The panelists will discuss why the promotion of contraception also promotes the concept of the right to decide the number and spacing of children, and how this, in turn, creates an ethical imperative to support women when contraceptives fail and unwanted pregnancies occur. In the absence of such support, it would be unethical to encourage women to use contraceptives and control their fertility in the first place. The panel will also talk about women’s perspectives on situations in which contraceptives are available and promoted yet abortions are prohibited in most cases, and are often unsafe. The panel will discuss whether postabortion care—making services available only after the fact, to treat complications and clean up after unsafe abortions—is ethically responsible and results in the highest attainable standard of health for women with unwanted pregnancies.
Location: Kintamani 7
Pathways to Reproductive Health Empowerment for Young Girls
Wednesday, January 27: 4:20 – 5:40 pm
Moderator: Sivananthi Thanenthiran
Programs to improve the reproductive health of adolescents have often focused on providing young people with information about sexuality, reproductive health and contraception, and with providing access to youth friendly reproductive health care. Yet deeply entrenched socio-cultural norms and practices around women’s roles, health and fertility influence the ability of young women to understand and claim their rights to sexual and reproductive health. These persistent practices include early marriage and early childbearing which limit girls’ opportunities for education and employment. Exposure to education and skills development opportunities empower girls and ensure that they develop the agency to delay sexual activity, marriage and pregnancy, and to see themselves as having value to their families and communities. The pathway to reproductive health empowerment for girls and young women must strengthen girls agency and self-efficacy alongside efforts to provide adolescents with information and skills. Importantly, programming must reach those gatekeepers of adolescent girls who shape the choices and decisions and affect their ability to exercise agency and claim their rights, be they peers, parents, teachers and community members.
And perhaps more importantly, such efforts should begin long before girls reach puberty or become sexually active to ensure social and normative change can take root and provide firm support for their reproductive empowerment. This panel will explore three approaches to social and normative change in support of girls’ empowerment, including delaying the age of marriage, developing gender equitable attitudes and providing comprehensive sexuality education in primary schools.
Location: Kintamani 6
