45 Years of Helping Women and Families Around the World
Population Action International’s (PAI) mission is to ensure that every person has the right and access to sexual and reproductive health, so that humanity and the natural environment can exist in balance and fewer people live in poverty. Founded in 1965,PAI’s early successes include playing a vital role in the establishment of an Office of Population within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the establishment of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and raising millions in private funds for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). These victories firmly solidified PAI as one of the most effective advocates on behalf of bilateral and multilateral financial support for family planning and reproductive health programs, and for women and families in the developing world. Other early victories include:
1967: Thanks in large part to efforts by PAI (then Population Crisis Committee), the U.S. House and Senate authorize foreign aid funds for family planning in the Foreign Assistance Act and earmark $35 million for FY 1968.
1972: Again thanks in large part to PAI, family planning assistance become a line item in the U.S. foreign aid budget with a $125 million appropriation.
1974: PAI helps to bring about the first World Population Conference in Bucharest, at which 135 countries adopt the World Population Plan of Action.
1975: PAI launches a Special Projects Fund under the direction of Robert (Bob) Wallace to provide financial and technical support to innovative, replicable and highly leveraged pilot projects in developing countries.
1981: PAI mobilizes population supporters across the United States to help defeat an attempt by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to eliminate foreign aid for family planning; following this, USAID adopts a family planning assistance policy document, much of which still guides policy today.
1983: PAI mounts a successful legislative campaign to block a White House proposal to shift resources away from UNFPA and private family planning organizations.
1988: Blueprint for the Environment is signed by major U.S. environmental groups and calls for a FY1990 family planning budget of $500 million, largely thanks to PAI’s outreach to the environmental community.
1989: PAI helps block a government move to eliminate line-item budgets for family planning aid.
1993: PAI helps influence President Bill Clinton in his decision to reverse the Global Gag Rule and re-fund UNFPA. Congress approves a 20% increase in family planning assistance despite cuts to other foreign aid accounts.
1994: PAI is part of the official U.S. delegation at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, where 179 countries pledged to help make basic reproductive health services available to all by 2015. PAI board member Dr. Nafis Sadik serves as Secretary General of the ICPD and PAI board member Dr. Fred Sai chairs its Main Committee.
1994: PAI helps boost U.S. funding for family planning to an all-time high of $542 million.
1997: Congress votes to release previously blocked family planning funds, due in part to advocacy efforts by PAI.
1999: World population reached 6 billion, and PAI launches the “Day of Six Billion” campaign to raise awareness of the links between population, health, education and the environment.
1999: PAI is part of the official U.S. delegation to the ICPD+5 Forum at the Hague, and President Amy Coen is among a select group of NGO representatives worldwide to organize a parallel NGO Forum, strengthening PAI’s position as a leading resource on financing issues.
2000: The Millennium Development Goals are enacted by the United Nations, creating a new framework for international development. PAI and partners succeed in having a sexual and reproductive health target included under MDG 5 – Improve Maternal Health.
2001: PAI plays a lead role in convening a historic meeting in Istanbul to address the global shortage of reproductive health supplies. This meeting marked a turning point for the global community by establishing a “Call to Action” to raise awareness, increase support and seek solutions to the crisis in RH supplies.
2001: PAI plays a vital role in convincing Congress of the link between population and biodiversity, and in getting both the U.S. government and the international community to recognize the interrelationship between reproductive health and natural resource management. Overall, this work has resulted in $22 million in Investments for Population-Environment Initiatives.
2003: PAI and the Global Gag Rule Impact Project produce groundbreaking report, Access Denied, which is the first of its kind to systematically examine and document the consequences of the gag rule in developing countries.
2003: PAI releases the groundbreaking report, The Security Demographic, which elucidates the connections between age structures, demographic transition and outbreaks of civil conflict in the developing world.
2004: PAI is one of three organizations leading an effort to revitalize commitment to the landmark ICPD Programme of Action on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. Congress earmarks a funding increase to $441 million for USAID and a $34 million contribution for UNFPA, stipulating that any funds withheld from UNFPA will be spent on family planning by USAID.
2007: PAI leads an initiative that unleashed over $100 Million in New Funding for Family Planning and Reproductive Health from the Global Fund.
2007: PAI releases groundbreaking report, The Shape of Things to Come, which provides valuable new insights into the programs and investments which can make countries "healthier,” more stable and peaceful, more democratic, and better able to provide for the needs of their citizens.
2007: PAI launches a groundbreaking Climate Change Initiative to insert population dynamics, and their link to women’s health and rights, as central in efforts to both mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. Through an integrated, evidence-based advocacy approach, and working in concert with a strong network of allies, PAI has since succeeded in moving the baseline from one in which population was rarely mentioned in policy debates, to one where population and reproductive health are increasingly recognized as key components.
2008: PAI plays a leading role in positioning international family planning as a critical issue for attention in the first 100 days of the new Congress and Administration, and all of PAI’s main recommendations were implemented: The Global Gag Rule was overturned; the U.S. contribution to UNFPA was restored; major gains in appropriations were achieved; and new PEPFAR guidances were issued that allow, for the first time, PEPFAR funds to be used to support family planning efforts as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy.
2009: PAI’s Climate Change Initiative influences Danish Minister of Development to add an additional $5.9 million USD in UNFPA funding at the Copenhagen climate negotiations. The Minister specifically cites work by PAI as compelling evidence of these linkages in his announcement of the pledge.
2009: PAI continues its longstanding work on the critical issue of a shortage of reproductive health supplies and plays a lead role in influencing the inclusion of language on supplies in the 2009 Conference on Population and Development resolution to emerge from the United Nations. Since PAI’s involvement on this issue (in partnership with allies around the world), there has been a significant upswing in media coverage, increase in funding and improved donor effectiveness for supplies.
2009: Over the past decade, building on the principles of its early Special Projects Fund, PAI continues its work to support developing country advocacy efforts, providing targeted, often multi-year advocacy grants ($5,000 to $40,000 per year) to partners who are initiating or expanding advocacy activities around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) at the local, regional or national level. As of 2009, PAI had invested over $2.5 million in such grants through its core International Advocacy Program over the course of ten years.
2009: PAI’s Initiative on Integrated HIV/Reproductive Health Programs unleashes another $102,905,997 Million in new funding for reproductive health from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
2009: In the FY2010 omnibus spending bill, Congress appropriates a total of $648.5 million for bilateral and multilateral FP/RH programs, an increase of more than $103 million (19%) above the FY2009 enacted level and $55 million more than the President’s budget request. This is the largest amount ever enacted for FP/RH programs (not accounting for inflation) and includes $55 million for UNFPA. PAI and its partners play a critical role in this success.
2010: PAI celebrates its 45th Anniversary Year. World population will reach 7 billion this year.
