Major highlights of this upcoming event were granted to the press and scientific experts during a conference on November 12, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The international conference on Family Planning(ICFP) to be held in Pattya city, Thailand will take place from February 1-4, 2021. This was disclosed in a press conference that took place on November 12, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya as part of side events of the international conference on population and development (ICPD25) summit.
From explanations and discussions, focus will be laid more on the needs of women, the future of family planning among young people and adolescents, the use of social media and languages accessible to common people or communities to amplify sensitizations and the media to ease and lead communication on various expectations. Challenges and expectations were equally outlined during the one hour exchange.
The sixth international conference on family planning to be co-hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates institute for population and reproductive health, the kingdom of Thailand’s ministry of public health, the Royal Thai college of obstetricians and gynaecologists and the population and c ommunity development association, appears as a challenge for a country which has significantly brought down its population growth. The popularization of family planning as from the early 1970s in Thailand has helped to cut down the fertility rate from 6.1 to 1.5 percent according to reports. Contraceptive prevalence increased from 14.8 to 70.6 percent.
Thailand therefore serves as an example for other low to middle-income countries about the great strides she has made so far in reproductive health.
The press conference brought together on the panel, Samrerng Yaenggratoke, Vice Minister in the ministry of public health in Thailand ; Professor Benoit Kalasa, Director of the Technical Division in the United Nations Population Fund ; Jose “Oying” Rimon II, Director, in the Bill & Melinda Gates institute for population and reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health ; Professor Kamthorn Pruksananonda, Director of the Secretariat of the national steering committee of ICFP and by the way the Chairman of Reproductive Medicine Subcommittee, The Royal Thai College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists and Mrs Wassana Im-em, Head of Office, UNFPA in Thailand.
The ICFP is described as a strategic inflection point for the family planning and reproductive health community aorldaide. It provides an opportunity for political leaders, scientists, researchers, policy makers, advocates and youth to disseminate knowledge, celebrate successes and identify next steps towqrd reaching the goal of enabling an additional 120 million women to access voluntary, quality contraception by 2020 and beyond.
