International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched its “I Decide” campaign on the 8^th of May under the theme “Ensuring equitable access to family planning for women and girls everywhere”. 

The campaign focused on Goal 2 - Increase access to sexual and reproductive health and rights in order to close the gap between the top and bottom wealth quintiles by 50% by the year 2020 and Goal  7- Reduce by at least 50%, the current unmet need for family planning by the year 2020 as per the IPPF vision2020 framework, which has a close link to global FP2020 campaign, where Sri Lanka has been identified as a priority country.

With I Decide 2017, the primary aim was to influence decision makers to prioritize and invest in unmet family planning needs, with a sharp focus on the needs of marginalized and vulnerable women and girls. This speaks to the commitment within the strategic framework of IPPF and FPA Sri Lanka as its Member Association to enable the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the most under-served. It also links directly to the commitment at the heart of the UN Sustainable Development Goals framework, to ‘leave no one behind’.

An online campaign was carried out on social media sites of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram carrying messages of why family planning is important, why we need to address equity and addressing the importance of removing barriers preventing women from accessing contraception.