Question
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment he has made of the effect of UK overseas development assistance on levels of contraception prevalence in the last 10 years.
Answered on
21 October 2019
In 2019, the modern contraceptive prevalence rate among all women of reproductive age in the 69 Family Planning 2020 movement focus countries was 34.8%, compared to 32.5% in 2012. This represent 46 million additional users of modern methods of family planning – of which we estimate 13.2 million has been reached by DFID programmes, with rapid increases in Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Chad – relative to what was expected in 2012.
Global adolescent fertility rates have reduced from 48 births per 1,000 adolescent girls in 2007, to 42 births per 1,000 adolescent girls in 2017. These results are due to countries’ own investments as well as investments from the entire development community.
The UK leads the world in our long-term support for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including for family planning. At UNGA this September, the Secretary of State reiterated our commitment to SRHR and announced a new £600m Reproductive Health Supplies programme running from 2020 to 2025, that will give over 20 million women and girls access to family planning per year. We are the second largest bilateral donor for family planning in developing countries and work through our country level and central programmes. These programmes provide access to family planning services, support an increase in demand for contraception and help countries to develop their own programmes. We have also led global family planning advocacy networks such as FP2020.
At the Family Planning Summit in 2017, we committed to increasing the focus on reaching adolescents in our programmes.