On 11th July more than 150 leaders from donor and developing countries, international agencies, civil society, foundations and the private sector met in London to make one of the biggest ever international commitments in favour of women’s autonomy and reproductive rights. They committed to provide 120 million women in the world’s poorest countries with access to contraceptives by 2020. If the leaders honour their commitments these pledges stand to eliminate over half of the world’s unmet need for contraception.

Organisers had hoped that the funds participants pledged to voluntary family planning programmes would amount to 4.3 billion US Dollars, but in fact this amount was surpassed, as the total raised came to 4.6 billion Dollars. By 2020, the collective efforts announced at the summit will result in 200,000 fewer women dying in pregnancy and childbirth, more than 110 million fewer unintended pregnancies, over 50 million fewer abortions, and nearly three million fewer babies dying in their first year of life.

The new commitments came from both partner and donor governments alike. Ethiopia has pledged to increase the resources it dedicates to family planning by 100%; Senegal by 200% and Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country – by 300%. Most staggering of all, however, is the commitment undertaken by the Indian government, which plans to achieve universal access to family planning by 2020 – reaching over 200 million couples, and doing so using only domestic resources. These increases were mirrored within the international development community: the Netherlands will increase its spending on sexual and reproductive health and rights (including HIV/AIDS) by 100 million Euros; Norway will double its commitment and the European Commission will earmark 23 million more Euros to the issue. Finally, the hosts of the summit – the UK government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – will double the funds they commit to family planning in particular.

A number of EPF members attended the event. The UK APPG was represented by Baroness Jenny Tonge, Richard Ottaway MP, Baroness Shreela Flather, Baroness Lindsay Northover and the APPG secretary Ann-Mette Kjaerby. Belgian Senator Marleen Temmerman and EPF Secretary Neil Datta were also present, along with Pakistani MP Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, who recently chaired the Drafting Committee at the IPCI in Istanbul. EPF is delighted with the outcome of the summit, and will work with its APPGs in the future to ensure that we hold the governments to account for the pledges that they have made. Similarly we hope that this summit can serve as a model for all those governments that were not at the summit.