The International Conference on Better Health for Women and Children Through Family Planning

Abstract

In a concerted effort to reassert the health justification for family planning, a broad range of international agencies organized the International Conference on Better Health for Women and Children through Family Planning, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on October 5-9, 1987. The conference was cosponsored by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, The Population Council and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Participants included 220 government officials, health ministers, donor agency representatives, maternal and child health specialists and family planning professionals from 60 countries. For the past two decades or more, family planning has been promoted in many developing countries principally as a means of controlling rapid population growth. In an effort to bring about a reduction in high levels of fertility, many family planning programs have focused on the provision of contraceptive services to older, high-parity women who want to end their childbearing careers. Fewer programs have targeted the needs of younger women who want to delay their first birth or space subsequent births. Demographic concerns have also tended to obscure both the original intent of the family planning movement, which was to affirm the right of women to control their fertility, and the strong positive relationship between family planning and health. In recent years, however, as a result of the massive body of data collected in numerous national fertility surveys, new evidence has come to light showing the key role played by family planning in improving