HIV Update: Family planning and HIV integration

From words to action

By Lucy Stackpool-Moore (IPPF)

One of the many things that the response to HIV has shown the world over the last 30 years, is that communities can stand up, demand access to better quality services, defend their sexual and reproductive rights, and ultimately make a difference to policies and programmes. The growing movement for women, girls and their partners to demand sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning, can learn from these successes.

One of the key messages from the session on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV linkages at the London Summit on Family Planning Summit in July 2012 was that: “family planning needs to take a holistic approach to women’s health including their direct engagement in the prioritization of what is needed, what works and what is the appropriate method mix." (full session report) To be effective, this ‘holistic approach’ needs to engage communities not only as clients and end-users of services alone, but also as active participants in demanding the range and quality of services that meet their needs.

Internationally, different ‘communities’ have been speaking out to galvanize attention, energy and action on family planning and HIV integration. This past month has seen action on the commitments made during the Summit and a renewed focus on the potential health and economic benefits of integrating HIV and family planning services.

From the research community, the results from the five-year Integra operations research Initiative - launched at the UK Houses of Parliament - indicated that integrating SRH and HIV services can reduce unmet need for family planning, especially for women living with HIV. Several of the study components showed an unmet need for SRH services among women living with HIV, and suggest that integrated services can help realize their fertility intentions and meet their contraceptive needs. New technologies, such as different varieties of the female condom, have also been developed and evaluated that could contribute to the range and accessibility of family planning methods.

From the donor community, building on the London Family Planning Summit it was announced that the UK government will provide additional support for Malawi’s HIV response as well as support for wider healthcare – an additional £21 million pounds was provided specifically for family planning and HIV. In Malawi, this was welcomed as direct action following on from their first national family planning conference (held in May 2012) and owes much to sustained political leadership on maternal and child health by President Joyce Banda.

From our IPPF community, we remain committed to scaling up family planning and HIV service delivery particularly for poor and vulnerable women, men and young people. We also celebrate the vast contribution that Kevin Osborne has made to the HIV community - within IPPF and beyond - through his vision and leadership over the last 10 years.

Different communities are speaking out and demanding action. All of us – clients, providers, managers, advocates and ambassadors defending sexual rights – need to make sure that we listen and continue to drive the actions (and not only the words in declarations of commitments) forward.

Download the full issue of the IPPF HIV Update newsletter: http://ippf.org/resource/HIV-Update-April