“Our FP2030 commitment highlights and fits into the strategic aim of our organization to bridge the gap between the reproductive health, climate and biodiversity sectors. Part of our commitment is to use our position within global biodiversity forums, such as the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature], to elevate and advocate for the importance of family planning as an important pillar in conservation and climate adaptation and resilience. We have been able to work with other IUCN member organizations also working at the intersection of health, biodiversity, and climate to formalize their own programmatic, policy, and research on these issues into FP2030 commitments and ultimately contribute to improving the lives of women and girls in remote, rural, last-mile communities. 

“Our reason for this new and multisectoral approach to family planning, in particular, is because we see the direct link between voluntary, rights-based family planning and biodiversity and climate. 

“We’re singling out the issue of reproductive health, but actually, [the issue] is broader; it’s about delivering a broader set of primary and secondary health care services to a population that previously would not have received health care. … 

“[It is] an integrated approach that is very much rooted in and based on what the communities have themselves identified as being their challenges hence the positive “goodwill effect” that is often observed with such integrated approaches; communities take ownership of a project and feel their complex needs are addressed.” 

“What happens is, in these integrated program sites, community members, whether they’re attending a clinic or attending a community meeting, they are hearing messages about health, but also messages about the environment, about climate, in an integrated manner. … You are accessing cohorts of the population that you would not normally have access to.

“There are many nontraditional actors who are working together with health partners to address the interconnected challenges of rural, remote, and last-mile communities, namely on population, health, and environment (PHE) programming, policy and research. They are contributing significantly to further FP2030 goals while also helping communities improve their livelihoods as well as biodiversity and climate goals. We have worked with several already to formalize their work into an FP2030 commitment. We encourage others to do the same.”