More than two months after the beginning of the new 2008 fiscal year, the White House and Congress have finally reached agreement on a massive FY 2008 omnibus spending bill. Here is a summary of the international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) issues within the foreign assistance provisions of the bill:

Funding—The omnibus spending bill includes $461 million for U.S. international FP/RH programs. This is the higher level that was contained in the Senate bill and represents an increase of $21 million above current levels and a more than 25 percent increase above the amount requested by the President.

Global Gag Rule—Disappointingly, the measure approved by both the House and Senate to provide an exemption from the Global Gag Rule—enabling foreign family planning organizations otherwise ineligible for U.S. FP/RH assistance to continue to receive U.S.-donated contraceptives—was dropped by congressional negotiators in the face of an unwavering veto threat from the President. Regrettably, the Senate-passed amendment to fully overturn the Gag Rule also suffered the same fate.

PAI President and CEO Amy Coen had this to say upon hearing the news:

"We commend members of Congress—on both sides of the abortion debate—for finding common ground to improve the lives of women and their children, thus reducing unintended pregnancies, abortion, and HIV infection through greater access to contraceptives. It is tragic that President Bush was unable to follow their lead. His persistent threat to veto the foreign assistance bill doomed this life-saving measure. It is unconscionable for a president to ignore the majority of the members of Congress, the majority of Americans and the best interests of millions of human beings because he is blinded by his own narrow beliefs. Today the shadow of one man darkens the lives of so many."

UNFPA—The omnibus spending bill provides a U.S. contribution to the UN Population Fund of $40 million. The overall contribution level reflects a $6 million increase about the $34 million approved by Congress in FY 2007. The UNFPA contribution still remains subject to the existing "Kemp-Kasten" restriction, which has been interpreted by the Bush administration to deny more than $150 million in funding to UNFPA for the last six years. However, the spending bill includes House-passed language requiring a Kemp-Kasten determination with six months of enactment of the bill and stipulating that the decision must be accompanied by a comprehensive analysis and the evidence used in making the determination. In addition, the bill includes a requirement that any amount withheld from UNFPA under Kemp-Kasten be reprogrammed to USAID for bilateral "family planning, maternal, and reproductive health activities."

Abstinence Earmark—Lastly, and on a very positive note, the omnibus spending bill also contains a provision approved by both the House and Senate nullifying the "abstinence-until-marriage" earmark of bilateral HIV/AIDS prevention funding. By waiving this destructive restriction mandating at least one-third of all HIV/AIDS prevention funding be limited to abstinence-until-marriage programs, this measure will provide much-needed flexibility to the federal Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) in programming prevention funding in developing countries.

The haze of pollution that shrouds Mexico City, obscuring views of the mountains that surround the sprawling city, lifted on our first morning, giving us clear views of the hills that lie just outside of the city limits.  However, as soon as Michele Duryea, the Vice President of Development, and I were seated in the back of Hugo’s red “Chevy,” making our way through dense early morning traffic, my eyes began to burn.  It quickly became clear that Mexico City’s pollution is there to greet every newcomer, and that urbanization was not a subject we had to seek out; we could simply sit amidst thousands of cars, exhaust fumes and blaring horns and observe.  

On our way to the first of several meetings in our whirlwind trip to check out the many organizations that we will visit on PAI's Friends Study Tour to Mexico (in February), I was impressed by the diversity of scenery that passed by the car window:  enormous artistic sculptures, small stores with hand-painted signs, 17th century buildings, and expensive clothing stores all formed the eclectic mix.

Earlier this week, PAI staff Kate Tibone and Sarah Haddock were in New York City, attending the UN Special Session on Children. This meeting is a follow-up to review progress made in the past 5 years toward meeting the goals of the outcome document, "A World Fit for Children."

Youth participation on sexual and reproductive rights advocacy was supported by the International Women's Health Coalition's  advanced training, called "Advocacy in Practice". This training was the third in a series; the first was held at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) last year, in which former PAI intern, Beth Orero participated, and the second training was held a few months ago at the Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSH) in Hyderabad, India.

Thirty minutes outside Arusha on the way to Nairobi and then 3km along a dirt road is the Selian Lutheran Hospital. One of 20 Lutheran hospitals across the country, the Selian facility serves the primarily Maasai population in the surrounding area. This morning the PAI team visited the reproductive health (RH) unit of the hospital and learned of the important role it plays in meeting family planning needs despite the ongoing challenge of securing a consistent supply of contraceptive methods.

Ms. Florah Kyara, a nurse in the RH unit, opened a cabinet and showed us the shelf containing all of the contraceptive supplies in stock, which was less than half full. Selian Hospital offers its clients a range of family planning methods, including condoms, three types of oral contraceptives, injectables, implants, IUDs and male and female sterilization; but only after each new client has received a complete medical examination and counseling about her contraceptive choices.      

Here in lush, tranquil Arusha, Tanzania, a boisterous chorus of roosters greets you far too early in the morning as if to announce, "Welcome to the 5th African Population Conference!" Team PAI is here amidst the vast coffee and tea plantations surrounding Arusha – and under the watchful gaze of magnificent Mt. Meru – at this week-long gathering of largely African researchers, demographers, advocates and policymakers who’ve assembled to discuss family planning/reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and overall population trends in Africa.

 

Introduction: Staff from Population Action International are presenting “The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World” at several events in Europe.  Join Tyler LePard, PAI’s Media Manager, for an inside look!

After the journalist workshop, the PAI team headed for lunch with DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevolkerung). Along the way, we passed the “Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe” (Denkmal fur die Ermordeten Juden Europas). It’s an eerie grid made with concrete blocks of differing heights that takes up a whole city block.  The somberness of the subject contrasted sharply with children running and playing among the rows.

Our next stop after the Naguru was another innovative teen center in Kampala: the Kitebi Teenage Centre.  The Kitebi Teenage Centre sits at the end of a bumpy, winding dirt road, a bit more difficult to get to than Naguru.  However, the team of 150 volunteer staff has solved that problem by bringing their services directly into the communities they serve. 
 
Kitebi has a variety of outreach programs, all designed to reach young people who wouldn’t ordinarily go to a clinic.  Their drama team holds well-attended productions throughout Kampala where clients come for some free entertainment and are encouraged to get tested for HIV or receive counseling while they are there.  Other outreach programs target young men, including the predominantly male ranks of bora bora drivers (one of the fastest -- and most dangerous -- ways to get around Kampala is to sit on the back of a hired motorcycle where the driver, called a bora bora driver, weaves in and out of the heavy traffic to take their passengers to their destination) and bricklayers.  The Kitebi team distributes condoms in local bars and hosts sporting events where the participants can also receive HIV testing.  These programs make the prospect of counseling and testing more tolerable and convenient than expecting these men to go out of their way to visit a clinic.

 

Now that the Eastern Africa Reproductive Health Network (EARHN) meeting is closed and the group is armed with a draft strategic plan, the PAI team here in Kampala has finally had the opportunity to explore the city.  Carolyn Vogel, PAI VP of Programs, and I had a full day of meetings today to help us gain an understanding of the realities facing men, women and youth in Uganda who need of reproductive health and family planning supplies and services. 
 
Our first stop was Naguru Teenage Centre, widely recognized as one of the best equipped youth centers in Kampala.  Young people from age 10 to 24 are willing to travel for hours to utilize the services here, as evidenced by the long line of people waiting outside the building.  In fact, the clinic is so popular that they had to stop advertising their services because the numbers of clients grew overwhelming.  The center’s advocacy manager, Henry Ntala told us, “It can be so hard to see young people sitting outside, but there’s nothing to do.”  Even as Carolyn Vogel and I sat outside the center talking to Mr. Ntala, we watched dozens more women and children stream toward the center to join the ever growing line.  The number of young people needing reproductive health services and supplies seems endless.

Introduction: Staff from Population Action International are presenting “The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World” at several events in Europe. Join Tyler LePard, PAI’s Media Manager, for an inside look!

On Thursday morning, the PAI team and DSW colleagues walked to the first event through the heart of Berlin. Eastern Berlin is full of newly constructed and restored or rebuilt buildings. The past couple of decades have brought many changes to Berlin, leaving little sign of The Wall that divided the city. We walked along Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden (two main thoroughfares), past several embassies, the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate to reach the building of the Representative of the Federal State Lower Saxony for our morning event.

It’s the end of our third and final day at the Eastern Africa Reproductive Health Network’s (EARHN) Annual Coordination Meeting and I’m proud to report that the delegates have come to a general consensus on a draft strategic plan.  There is still refining that will be done by the EARHN Strategic Plan Drafting Team, but we walked out of the meeting this evening with a two page document that summarized three days of lengthy, passionate discussion.  This strategic plan should help EARHN focus its work and be as effective as possible.

The network decided that they needed to focus on three areas: program development and expansion (bringing their work in line with partner organizations so that work is not duplicated and EARHN can make more of an impact), advocacy and coalition building (supporting members’ ability to advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights in their own countries) and institutional strengthening (establishing a more efficient institutional structure, developing annual workplans as well as developing a resource mobilization plan).  Of course, this brief summary just scratches the surface of the discussion and each member will return to their respective country with pages of notes about the next steps.

Introduction: Staff from Population Action International are presenting “The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World” ” at several events in Europe. Join Tyler LePard, PAI’s Media Manager, for an inside look!

The Population Action International team left The Hague on Wednesday morning, excited about the success of “The Shape of Things to Come” at the Peace Palace. After the panel briefing, a senior ministry official told us that he was going to use the report in a briefing for Parliament and encourage them to make demographics a key priority in development assistance and to increase funding for sexual and reproductive health programs and services. Hooray!

In the Netherlands, I was particularly impressed by the number of bicycles I saw. A couple of us in the PAI office bike to work, but it looks like everyone in the Netherlands rides bicycles. It’s an environmentally friendly way to get around – and fun too!

Bula! (hello in Fiji). I am here in Fiji, taking part in a regional advocacy training for young people from the Pacific, put on by the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, a sub-grantee of PAI's. I arrived yesterday (Tuesday) and have been very busy working with the other YC facilitators (Nino from Indonesia and Fred from Sweden) to finalize the week's agenda and develop the sessions for the training.

There are 10 participants, representing Fiji, new Zealand, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Nieu. I'll be facilitating sessions on analyzing UN texts, understanding the MDG framework, mapping international advocacy opportunities, and a session on research-based advocacy that will center on A Measure of Survival.

It is a very dedicated and knowledgeable group of young people, so I am looking forward to a productive week. The training began today, with presentations from participants on the key SRR issues in their countries and communities.

Sarah E. Haddock, Research Assistant

Our first stop on the European tour was The Netherlands.  We were invited by the World Population Fund to present “The Shape of Things to Come.”  Amy Coen, Claudia Kennedy, Tod Preston, Liz Leahy and I arrived in The Hague on December 2, met WPF staff for dinner and got ready for our events.

After the documentary screening at the Ministry Wednesday morning, we traveled to the Peace Palace, a beautiful and prestigious venue.  Before the official event began, we met with Rob Vrecken, a reporter for De Volkskrant. Each member of our PAI team contributed their expertise to the interview, highlighting key findings and recommendations from “The Shape of Things to Come” and its implications for policy, development, and security, as well as the report’s connections with other aspects of PAI’s work. 

The two-hour panel briefing began with a welcome from Frans Baneke, the Director of the World Population Fund (WPF). Claudia Kennedy (Lt. General U.S. Army Retired and PAI Board Member) introduced the report. She said, “The international development community – and organizations like WPF and PAI – have long recognized that improving the well-being of individuals aren’t just investments in people; they’re investments in creating a more peaceful and developed world.”

I’m excited to be reporting back from Kampala, Uganda, where a team from PAI is participating in the Eastern Africa Reproductive Health Network’s (EARHN) Annual Coordination meeting. This unique network consists of six member states (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi) who have come together to influence policies and funding for reproductive health in their respective countries.

On our first day here, Dr. Peter Njoroge from the East African Community told a story about visiting a rural village in Tanzania where people were so desperate for contraceptives that they were using plastic baggies as condoms – even though condoms were available in the capital, they didn’t have any way to get them to the country. When I looked around the room, nearly every head was nodding knowingly. This is the sort of unbelievable story that you hear all the time in this region. Men and women throughout Eastern Africa can’t access the reproductive health supplies that stock the shelves of nearly every convenience store in the United States. EARHN is part of the effort to make stockouts like this a thing of the past.

Introduction: Staff from Population Action International are presenting “The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World” at several events in Europe.  Join Tyler LePard, PAI’s Media Manager, for an inside look!
 

Our first stop on the European tour was The Netherlands. We were invited by the World Population Fund (WPF) to present “The Shape of Things to Come.” Amy Coen, Claudia Kennedy, Tod Preston, Liz Leahy and I arrived in The Hague on December 2, met WPF staff for dinner and got ready for today.

Before our event, we were invited to attend a screening of a new documentary at the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

One of the filmmakers was present to introduce her provocative film about rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)...

On a trip to Ethiopia, Amy Coen, President/CEO of Population Action International, had the opportunity to meet Dr. Bogaletch Gebra -- affectionately called "Boge" -- who is spearheading a national campaign to end the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). They participated in a rally of over 15,000 girls, mothers, fathers and village elders who demonstrated their commitment to ending FGM in their communities. It takes a commitment from every level of a society to triumph over a traditional practice that has been performed for centuries in some communities and rallies like this one bring the world even closer to ending to this form of human rights abuse.

Watch the video after the jump!