So... $4.6 billion recently pledged to boost modern contraceptive uptake (an extra 120 million women by 2020)
I think that's a big kudos!
and... apropos, I share this little story...
I was lucky to be involved in finalizing the family planning policy for South Sudan, (1st draft in Nov 2009, then a colleague revived it this year) and it was literally 5 of us in a room arguing about what needs to be in it or out.
one of the key things we stressed in the policy is that contraception is the woman's decision regardless of what her husband or her family believes/says. This is because we understand that it is women who are at risk of complications of pregnancy, and currently in South Sudan, women are supposed to bear as many children as they can. (Of course there are communities that practice family planning- e.g the Dinka who space children in 2-year intervals... but because the woman abstains for that two years... well, I have issues with that too)
Obviously we knew this will be resisted widely but felt that the policy should explicitly state this- and hopefully as our communities progress, this becomes a moot point.
So.... a couple of months later we were having a workshop with people involved in primary health care (state ministries of health, county health departments, health facility in-charges, etc.- they came from the 10 states of South Sudan) and one guy started talking about how at his health facility if a woman comes for contraceptives they send her home to bring her husband
*pause*
what?
so the maternal and child health advisor steps up and states that this is actually
not what should happen- the woman has the right to access whatever method she wants independently of her husband.
This resulted in a huge argument in the room and finally one guy stood up and was like
"Well... that doesn't make any sense. Of course the husband has to decide that's why its called family planning... Otherwise it would be called woman planning..
We have a long way to go....
http://www.economist.com/node/21558564
