Message from the ICFP International Steering Committee Chair

Dear friends, colleagues, and partners,

Ten years after the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, the 2022 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) celebrated the tens of millions more women using a modern method of family planning and the growing number of governments, corporations, funders, and non-governmental organizations pledging to take specific actions to expand access to voluntary, rights-based contraception.

At the same time, ICFP, the world’s largest scientific conference on family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights, highlighted the urgency of this moment—particularly as COVID-19 and other crises continue to divert healthcare funding from family planning efforts.

ICFP provided an important opportunity to reunite the community more than two years after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and global emergency, providing a unique look into our challenges and triumphs, as well as our weaknesses and resilience.

This year’s scientific program represented the strongest body of new family planning research presented at an ICFP yet, featuring more than 200 scientific sessions across oral and flash sessions and 6 poster sessions across 16 tracks covering a wide diversity of research, program, and advocacy topics.

Youth delegates were a driving force behind ICFP2022. In the conference’s closing plenary session, youth advocates from around the world gathered to share personal stories from their work and present a Global Roadmap for Action for Adolescents and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (AYSRHR).

The roadmap—designed and led by youth in collaboration with over 40 organizations—sets out 2030 goals, priorities, and recommendations, showing unity in support for the expression of young peoples’ SRHR needs and values across the world.

For the first time, ICFP was offered in a hybrid format, allowing over 3,600 registered delegates and online community members to engage virtually. Virtual attendees had live-streamed access to the most popular scientific sessions, on-demand recordings, plenary hall programming, and interactive features such as polling and Q&A with session moderators and presenters.

ICFP2022 also marked the launch of ICFP LIVE and the Family Planning News Network (FPNN), platforms that brought together experts and community members to discuss family planning, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and related issues through live sessions and interviews. ICFP LIVE and FPNN featured short, partner-driven sessions on topics like sex taboos, male engagement, emergency contraception, abortion rights, climate change, planetary health, and more.

As the preeminent event for countries, organizations, and individuals to make important family planning announcements, this year’s ICFP saw several historic new FP2030 pledges, including a five-year, USD 15 million commitment from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). More than 85 global parliamentary and ministerial-level delegates were in attendance.

ICFP2022 brought the family planning and reproductive health community together to strengthen our collective movement to achieve universal access to family planning by 2030 as an essential element of Universal Health Coverage.

Against a global backdrop of growing extremism and erosion of gender equality and reproductive rights, the ICFP addressed what the community can and should do to protect and advance reproductive rights and drew on expertise from different regions and settings—including crisis settings.

ICFP2022 provided the opportunity for the community to gather to discuss many of these topics alongside other crucial topics in family planning, reproductive health, population dynamics, and universal health care.

With over 91% of our survey respondents stating that their participation in ICFP will be useful in their future work on both a personal and a global level and 70% planning to take immediate action as a result of the conference, it is paramount that we collectively continue providing space for reflection and discussion into 2023 and beyond.

ICFP will continue to build upon this successful platform to disseminate information and research, uncover important innovations, and bring the community together to ensure we stay connected and continue to move our collective vision forward.

In solidarity,