For Governments

Getting support from government decision-makers, even non-health ministries, is crucial in building solid commitments.

Government stakeholders should be involved early on at different levels and ministries to ensure their active participation throughout the drafting, launch, and implementation of commitments. Some countries have established intergovernmental relationships supporting health priorities, while others are at earlier stages. Here is what you need to do:

1. Embrace a Multi-Level, Multi-Sector Approach: Clearly define the level of involvement and time commitment you are seeking. Provide a comprehensive overview of other stakeholders involved and what is expected from their participation. Consider involving a diverse group of government stakeholders in your commitment process if not in place already. This could include:
   1. Senior Decision Makers: They play a key role by supporting the entire process.
   2. Technical Specialists: Experts from various relevant fields (policy, data, budget, etc.) can take ownership of specific tasks and provide updates to senior decision-makers.
   3. National and Subnational Representatives: Government officials from different levels.
   4. Cross-Sector Representatives: Ministries beyond Health, like Finance, Planning, Budget, Education, etc.
2. Be Precise in Your Requests: When engaging a government decision-maker, tailor your message to their interests. Develop a specific “ask” that aligns with what they care about. For instance, some may need evidence of progress in previous family planning commitments. In such cases, compile data and analysis showing achievements, gaps, and how their support would be valuable.

Creating a roadmap for your commitment process helps you prioritize tasks involving key stakeholders, ensuring a transparent and comprehensive approach to your country’s commitments.

1. Define Priorities and Roles: Clearly outline your commitment process priorities and assign roles and responsibilities. Designate a roadmap owner, usually a Commitment Steering Committee member responsible for updates and sharing with stakeholders.
2. Start with the End in Mind: Identify desired outcomes and characteristics for your commitment. Translate these into organized tasks, considering available resources and stakeholder engagement. Align with frameworks like the Costed Implementation Plan, Global Finance Facility investment case, and ICPD+25 commitment.
3. Time and Flexibility: Plan realistic timelines for each step, factoring in consultation processes. Allow flexibility by incorporating contingency plans to address unforeseen factors.
4. Prioritize Activities: Categorize tasks as “must have,” “nice to have,” and “could have” to maintain flexibility while ensuring essential steps are clear. This approach accommodates potential delays or complications.
5. Regular Review and Update: Keep your roadmap current as plans evolve. This ensures that all stakeholders stay informed and aligned with the commitment process.

If your government previously pledged to FP2020, assessing how well you’ve met that commitment is vital. This evaluation helps identify successes and challenges, promoting openness, ownership, and collaboration through inclusive discussions.

1. Gather and Analyze Data: Look at various data sources to gauge your progress with FP2020 commitments. This assessment is a key part of your commitment roadmap, led by your Commitment Steering Committee. Visit your country’s Track20 page for additional data and detailed analysis, covering areas like modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) growth, postpartum family planning, youth contraceptive use, and types of contraceptives used. These insights provide a deeper understanding of the factors influencing mCPR growth.
2. Assess Commitment Progress: Ask yourself these questions regarding your previous commitment:
   1. How much progress has your government made in fulfilling the commitment? Can this progress be measured? For instance, if an mCPR goal was set, how much has it changed?
   2. Explore the reasons behind the progress (or lack thereof) in meeting the commitment. Identify any unanswered questions.
   3. Analyze data from regions and sub-groups to understand commitment progress among various segments. Have specific groups seen notable progress?
3. Refine Objectives: Based on progress and underlying factors, consider whether commitment objectives need adjustments or should stay the same. Acknowledge objectives that were exceeded or might need more ambition. Align objectives with shifting priorities.
4. Share Results Transparently: Transparency enhances trust and shared goals. Communicate achievements and setbacks openly, involving partners in your country’s commitment.
5. Explore Beyond Data: Look beyond the data to address the following areas:
   1. Coordination: Build on successful coordination mechanisms to enhance stakeholders’ collaboration and communication.
   2. Transparency: Strengthen monitoring and sharing processes for collective progress.
   3. Inclusivity: Ensure diverse and often marginalized voices are included and valued throughout the commitment.
   4. Accountability: Strengthen mutual accountability through effective mechanisms.

During this step, you will draft your country’s 2030 commitment.

Craft Your 2030 Vision Statement

Your vision statement encapsulates your government’s ambitions in advancing family planning. What positive transformations do you aim to achieve by 2030, centered around women and girls? Follow these suggestions:

1. Inspire Action: Energize local and global stakeholders to unite in achieving your family planning goals.
2. Be Bold and Precise: Create a succinct vision, about 2-3 sentences or 40 words, that conveys your ambitious aspirations. You can adjust the timeline if necessary.
3. Align with Existing Commitments: Incorporate language from relevant frameworks like SDGs or national plans to ensure harmony.

Remember that your consultations should prioritize commitment objectives, making the vision statement creation a swift process.

Outline Your Commitment Objectives Develop your objectives using these guidelines:

1. Goal Orientation: Objectives should contribute to your vision and align, when possible, with the 2030 partnership’s five key focus areas:
   1. Strengthen Political Commitment and Supportive Policies
   2. Enhance Evidence-based Decision Making
   3. Ensure Sustainable Financing for Family Planning
   4. Transform Social Norms to Support Women’s Contraceptive Choice
   5. Enhance Responsiveness of Health Systems to Individual Needs
2. Embrace Core Approaches: Infuse rights-based family planning principles across commitments, particularly for youth, while enhancing domestic funding. Further guidance is available on the Centering Rights page.
3. Thoughtful Selection: While there’s no fixed limit to objectives, concentrate on impactful priorities matching your data-sharing capacity.

For each objective, provide:

1. Timeline: Indicate the timeframe for working towards and achieving the objective.
2. Rationale: Share the data and evidence influencing your objective selection.

Strategies for Success: Outline strategies for each objective, focusing on shaping policies, changing norms, and refining systems.

1. Flexibility for Updates: Adjust commitment objectives based on evolving priorities and external circumstances as needed.

At the core of the commitment process is accountability. Countries must make formal commitments, including financial, political, and programmatic pledges, to deliver rights-based family planning interventions as part of the 2030 partnership.

Key Considerations

1. Empower Citizen Engagement: Enable citizens to engage meaningfully and collaborate with government actors, respecting their voices and inputs.
2. Youth Leadership: Prioritize youth involvement and leadership in accountability, facilitating their participation through flexible timing and anonymity options.
3. Transparent Feedback Loop: Establish clear communication channels to inform CSOs and citizens about actions based on their input, fostering trust and ongoing engagement.
4. Subnational Data Availability: Ensure access to timely and quality data at subnational levels, which is critical for effective accountability mechanisms.
5. Private Sector Engagement: Involve the private sector in participatory planning, leveraging their unique insights and data.
6. Local Stakeholder Understanding: Ensure participants comprehend how commitments apply within accountability mechanisms.
7. Integrate Family Planning: Embed family planning accountability into existing health sector mechanisms for efficiency.
8. Local Leadership: When possible, involve local organizations to lead mechanism development, ensuring relevance and sustainability.

Examples of Promising Accountability Mechanisms 

Sharing a draft of your commitment lets you receive input from the FP2030 Support Network and other important stakeholders. Use the draft commitment template to shape your commitment.

When to Share Your Draft Commitment
Share your draft commitment with FP2030 after initial validation with country-level family planning stakeholders but before the final formal validation. Use this checklist for preliminary validation:

1. Is your commitment rooted in rights-based principles?
2. Does it align with global and regional partnerships (ICPD25, GFF, UHC) and national strategies?
3. Do available data and evidence back your commitment?
4. Does it include a clear vision, commitment objectives, and an accountability approach?
5. Have you engaged key stakeholders, including CSOs, young people, and marginalized groups?

Share your draft commitment with the FP2030 Support Network before the formal validation and approval. The FP2030 Support Network will need three weeks for a comprehensive review.

What Happens Next
Once you submit your draft commitment, FP2030 Support Network will:

1. Connect you with your primary contact at FP2030 Support Network.
2. Provide a feedback timeframe.
3. Share your draft with trusted partners, like technical experts and advocates.

Your draft will not be shared publicly beyond this group.

Feedback Process
FP2030 feedback will focus on the following:

1. Alignment with FP2030 Guiding Principles.
2. Strengthening of rights-based principles and focus areas.
3. Alignment with data, evidence, and recommended Accountability Principles.
4. Addressing questions and clarifications.

Consolidated feedback will be shared via email with your contact points. The review can include multiple rounds and phone calls between your Commitment Steering Committee and FP2030 Support Network.

In this step, you’ll refine your commitment by considering feedback, validate it with key stakeholders, and then share it for broader recognition.

Finalize Your Commitment:

1. The FP2030 Support Network will provide feedback on your commitment for your review.
2. Your Commitment Steering Committee should discuss and integrate relevant feedback from the network and other partners.
3. Collaborate with country stakeholders to select and incorporate valuable feedback into a final commitment draft.

Validate Your Final Commitment:

1. Share the final commitment with important stakeholders, including civil society and youth representatives, to secure formal validation.
2. In some cases, your country’s commitment may be formally signed by relevant ministerial authorities, marking its official validation.
3. Consider holding an announcement event to publicize your FP2030 commitment. Resources for this are available in Step Nine.

Share Your Commitment for Publication:

1. Once approved by authorities, share your commitment with your FP2030 contact person via email.
2. The FP2030 Support Network can assist with launching your commitment in-country.
3. FP2030 will publish your commitment on its website following the launch, share it within its global community, and showcase it at major global events.

Now that your commitment is ready. It’s time to share it globally. This step highlights the chance to showcase your family planning leadership through media and social media in partnership with FP2030.

1. Key Messages: When communicating your commitment, consider using these messages for press statements, interviews, and public events. To add a local touch, include relevant national data and context.
2. Website Announcement: Easily promote your commitment on your website. Add a banner or news item, press release, and commitment links. Graphics and photos can enhance the impact. Encourage partners to share on their sites and social media to drive traffic.
3. Media Outreach: Customize and distribute our press release template to your media contacts. Share local fact sheets showcasing commitment data from progress reports. Consider hosting local or virtual events and interviews to engage journalists.
4. Social Media: Use pre-made tweets and posts provided by FP2030. Follow our suggested schedule for coordinated release. Remember to include the hashtag #FP2030. Encourage partners to share, too, expanding your reach. Feel free to use our Social Media Kit.
5. Graphics: Highlight your commitment visually with graphics and GIFs from FP2030. Use them in local releases, on your website, or on social media.
6. Questions and Support: Congratulations on your commitment! Contact Kirsten Sherk at ksherk@fp2030.org for any assistance or inquiries about maximizing this opportunity.