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Renewing our commitments on World Population Day



This World Population Day, are we listening to What Women Want?

Tomorrow, July 11, on World Population Day, which highlights the urgency of population issues, White Ribbon Alliance members around the world are calling on everyone to uphold the human right to comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including family planning. 

Throughout 2018 and 2019, 359 partners asked nearly 1.2 million women and adolescent girls in 114 countries: what is your top request for your maternal and reproductive healthcare? Medicines and supplies, including family planning information, services and supplies, rose to the top of responses globally. They are in even larger demand in Pakistan, where I am the National Coordinator of the Research & Development Forum for Safe Motherhood, a White Ribbon Alliance affiliate, and where approximately 5,000 community health volunteers mobilized demands from nearly 250,000 women and girls. 

The request for the availability and access to modern family planning methods led our team in Pakistan to start a new campaign focused entirely on improving access to family planning services, as we strive to put what we have heard from women into action. 

I hope you’ll join us. Download the What Women Want advocacy agenda and let us know how you’re listening to women and acting on their demands for comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including medicines, supplies and family planning.

In solidarity,

Navroza Sher Ali

National Coordinator, Research & Development Forum for Safe Motherhood in Pakistan, a White Ribbon Alliance affiliate 

Navroza Sher Ali is working as the National Coordinator at White Ribbon Alliance Chapter.
 
Asking “what do women want?” took perseverance on the part of thousands around the world. Answering it took courage from 1.2 million more. Delivering on it takes meaningful commitment from you.

What Women Want for Family Planning: Meeting the Demand

The What Women Want campaign in Pakistan showed us that women want improved, quality healthcare services, especially family planning services. But, we know that family planning programs cannot achieve success without first listening to women’s voices, valuing their inputs and experiences as evidence, and ultimately meeting their demands. Listen to Saima, a mother from Chitral, Pakistan, share her experience of giving birth during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the latest episode of White Ribbon Alliance's Brave Voices, Bold Actions podcast.

 
Realizing What Women Want requires a concerted effort among policymakers, service providers, development agencies, donors, journalists, advocates, community organizers, women, girls and their families and neighbors. If we want better health outcomes, women’s and girls’ agenda needs to become everyone’s agenda. Whatever your role in women’s and girls’ health, act now!

Is family planning only a woman's job?

In Pakistan, and other patriarchal societies, men’s views and opinions on subjects such as the ideal family size, spacing between births, and methods to be used for contraception have a strong impact on women’s health and lives. It is surprising, then, that men have generally been less involved in both receiving as well as providing information on sexual and reproductive health.

This Population Day, we ask: where are all the men in family planning? 

 

 
Asking “what do women want?” took perseverance on the part of thousands around the world. Answering it took courage from 1.2 million more. Delivering on it takes meaningful commitment from you.We must act on what they said. Whether one of the more than 350 partners who endorsed the campaign at its inception or new to What Women Want—now is the time to act.

Listening to What Women Want for Family Planning

In Pakistan, every year, over 8,300 women die during pregnancy and childbirth. One cause for these preventable deaths is the absence of women’s feedback on the reproductive healthcare services they receive. But, we know that asking women what they want is not enough - now is the time to listen, and act. The Forum for Safe Motherhood in Pakistan held a Family Planning to Achieve What Women Want listening session this month to amplify the voices and demands of women regarding family planning services - and to take these demands to decision-makers to demand change. 

 
REZNAH AND ZEENAT: WHAT WOMEN WANT IN PAKISTAN

Reznah & Zeenat: What Women Want in Pakistan

Women’s answers to the What Women Want campaign were often unexpected, challenging assumptions and shining new light on the realities of their daily lives. What Women Want also provided an opportunity for women to speak out about experiences which have often remained hidden, taboo or unacknowledged. Many have taken risks to speak out, but the risks of remaining silent were considered greater. Many of these brave women found encouragement from the words of others, validating and articulating their own experiences. Like Reznah and Zeenat in this video, the women of Pakistan shared their stories and asked to be heard.