Images from the Opening Plenary

More than 1,300 people from 59 countries journeyed to Uganda for the International Conference on Family Planning. Attendees packed the opening plenary on Sunday, November 15, 2009.

First Lady of Uganda Janet Museveni arrives at the opening plenary to give a keynote address.

Amy Tsui, director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, welcomes conference attendees during her opening address.

Aishatu Bello (left) and Theresa Castillo, of Engender Health, enjoy the conference opening.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Werner Haug, of the UNFPA, said that universal access to family planning could reduce maternal mortality by 40 percent.

Ephraim Kamuntu, Uganda Minister of State Planning, listens intently during the opening plenary.

Dr. Scott Radloff (center), representing USAID, confers with colleagues Jeff Speiler (left) and Abdullahi Mohammed Maiwada. Earlier, he told conference attendees, “We have a champion in President Obama.”

Conference participants gathered under the stars for the opening dinner.

Conference participants enjoyed performances by the Crane Dance Troupe.

Their Own Words: Mother and Father of Six

Fatuma Muwesi and child

As part of the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Family Planning, a young mother and father spoke briefly to the audience about their support of family planning and their hopes for how they will be able to improve the health and financial stability of their family through planning.

Fatuma and Zubairu Muwesi have had six children in 10 years; the youngest is about 18 months old. Recently the couple made a joint decision to delay further childbearing until they are more financially secure. Mrs. Muwesi, who is 24 years old, said, “I used to produce year after year. I needed a break. I wish the access to contraception had been as easy as salt or paraffin.” In light of how many women do not have access to or knowledge of contraception, she considers herself lucky to have finally been able to find contraception through a ProFam clinic.

“I told my wife that family planning was a woman’s issue,” Mr. Muwesi told the audience. But Mr. Muwesi had a change of heart, and he now feels that couples should plan their families together. “I know now that [family planning] is for men and women,” he said.

First Lady of Uganda Calls for Family Planning

First Lady of Uganda, Janet Museveni

In her keynote address at the opening plenary, First Lady of Uganda, Janet Museveni, urged that family planning be given greater attention in Uganda, and around the world.

Throughout Uganda, the First Lady is known as a great champion of health for children and mothers. In this address, she cited the “unacceptable” maternal death rate of 435 deaths per 100,000 live births and linked maternal death to a high rate of death in children under five years of age.

Among actions that are effective in reducing maternal death—antenatal care, emergency obstetric care, and birth attendants—she included family planning. “For some reason,” she said, “family planning as a concept has been misunderstood and maligned. We need to correct the image of family planning.” She urged that men contribute to family planning; “they have a role to play beyond conception,” she joked.

Referring to Uganda’s success in mobilizing against HIV/AIDS, she said that the impressive drop in the HIV prevalence rate is “a good example of what we can achieve in maternal health. Even a working country such as Uganda … backed by effective leadership … can do it.”

In closing, she said, “It is my sincere hope that a real breakthrough will be achieved here.”

Welcome Back to Family Planning

In the opening plenary of the International Conference on Family Planning, Professor Amy Tsui welcomed more than 1,300 participants from 59 countries to the International Conference on Family Planning. Lamenting the decline in attention to family planning over the last decade, Tsui, director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, expressed hope that this conference would usher in a new era of focus on this critical issue. “Welcome back to family planning,” she said, to the delight of the audience.

Among other highlights from the opening plenary:

• William Bazeyo, dean of the Makerere University School of Public Health, addressed the remarkable population growth in Uganda—with a population of 31 million in June, 2009, the average woman bears nearly seven children in her lifetime, and the country has a very high maternal rate of 435 deaths per 100,000 live births. Too many births, too close together, are factors often cited as contributing greatly to maternal mortality and morbidity. “Family planning is a lifesaver for millions of women in the working world,” said Bazeyo.

• Michael J. Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that this is the first international family planning conference in the last 17 years, said, “This is a historic date…We need it [family planning] now like we’ve never needed it before.”

• Dr. Werner Haug, of the UNFPA, called this a “landmark conference,” and said that universal access to family planning—a tenet of Millennium Development Goal 5B—has the potential to reduce maternal mortality by 40 percent. In addition, he provided a stunning calculation: It would cost an estimated $23 billion per year to stop unintended pregnancies across the world, and save the lives of mothers and newborns; “That is less than 10 days of global military spending.”

• The Commissioner for Social Affairs, African Union, called for greater attention to family planning in Africa. Dr. Bience Gawanas spoke of maternal mortality as “the shame of our continent,” and she urged the global community to fight against the “silent emergency” that is maternal mortality. She had the audience chant with her, “Africa cares. No woman should die while giving life.

• Dr. Scott Radloff, representing USAID, cheered the new Obama administration for making family planning and reproductive health a priority. “We have a champion in President Obama,” he said. He also reminded the audience that have only five years remaining to meet the Millennium Development Goals of 2015. “We’re not half way there,” he said. “Some countries are not on quarter of the way there.”

• From the Ugandan Ministry of Health, Dr. Stephen Mallinga cited the 3.2 percent population growth rate in Uganda. Unfortunately, he said, condoms are “not very popular here,” and there are many misconceptions of family planning in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a great need for educating the population, he added. Addressing the drain on resources imposed by a burgeoning population growth, Mallinga said, “All in all, this spells doom for the women and men, the children, and the community.” Economic growth would be better stimulated, he said, not by population growth, but by greater health.