By: Rebecca Brindza
ISRAEL: Policymakers in the present day have grown increasingly aware of the “multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant.”
21stCentury: Grassroots and Global Awareness
The onset of the new century perpetrated the aftereffects of the ICPD. Throughout the developing world, reproductive health services were being integrated into national health policies, and in 2001 the percentage of national governments providing support for both direct and indirect methods of contraception had reached 92% worldwide.
In Asian and Pacific states, the merging of family planning services with other aspects of reproductive-health services have grown in popularity and are now being provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand (UN, 2003).
However, there is still a significant gap in the use of family planning methods between the developed and developing worlds due to the lack of access to modern contraceptive practices within less developed states (UN, 2002). This is highlighted by the 2015 WHO estimates, stating that over 225 million women in the developing world alone would like to exercise some form of reproductive control but,at the current time are not using any form of contraception (WHO Fact Sheet, 2015).
In current times, the UN attributes any existing constraints to various socio-cultural or traditional beliefs, fear of side effects from older methods, and a general deficiency in up-to-date information. To face the need to combat the lack of awareness within communities, international interests began to employ educational campaigns that sought to “sensitize the population about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS”(UN, 2003).
Operations like so are often facilitated indirectly at the grassroots level, and have taken direct aim at the populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. An example of such is the FP2020, which is a global partnership spearheaded by several organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID and various UN bodies.
Following the 2012 London Summit, the FP2020 “pledged to bring modern contraception within reach of an additional 120 million women and girls by the year 2020” (FP2020, 2015). Since the launch of FP2020 just over three years ago, the initiative has gained commitments from over 80 bodies in the public, private, and civil sectors, and the number of women and girls using contraception has increased by more than 24.4 million (FP2020, 2015).
Conclusion
Spanning the 1945 establishment of the UN throughout the present day, international involvement in population control has shed light on the global need for family planning and the proliferation of modern contraception. However, this growth of international support and inclusion of fertility-related population policies at the national level is a reflection of not only commitments by governments to create their own internal changes, but also an indication of their “alliance with the international community” on matters concerning population growth (Tsui, 2001).
Rebecca Brindza is an inquisitive researcher and social scientist. Her areas of expertise include international affairs, diplomacy and strategy, conflict resolution, mental health issues and disaster & emergency management.Her independent research involves discovering innovative, track-2 approaches for cross-cultural collaboration within the Greater Middle East in the fields of health, science, and innovative technology etc.
