In 2017 World Population Day, 11 July, coincided with the Family Planning Summit, the second meeting of the FP2020–Family Planning 2020–initiative. This aims to expand access to voluntary family planning to 120 million additional women by 2020.

World Population Day (WPD2017), which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, was established by the then-Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. This year’s theme was:

Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations.

“Around the world, approximately 225 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe and effective family planning methods, for reasons ranging from lack of access to information or services to lack of support from their partners or communities” – United Nations

Family planning enables couples to choose whether and when to have children. It preserves women’s and girls’ health, empowers them to pursue education and work, enables them to contribute to the economy, and invest in the health and education of their children. Family planning saves lives, enriches communities and strengthens economies.

On 8 May, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched its global I Decide 2017 campaign calling for universal and equitable access to contraception.  On WPD 2017 it focused on the fact that “No one should be forced into pregnancy”, under the tagline #idecide my contraception.  To this end, FPA Sri Lanka engaged via social media forums that national family planning programs cannot leave any woman, man or young person behind.

The world’s poorest women have the highest unmet need for contraception. Policy environments that are hostile to women, regulations against accessing contraception, social stigma, lack of independence etc., deny women the choice and autonomy to decide. FPA Sri Lanka continues to work tirelessly in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health, so all women everywhere can say #idecide

Here are some of the posters disseminated in commemoration of WPD and IPPF’s #idecide campaign.