White House Transition

In the wake of the historic November 4 election, PAI has been working on a variety of fronts to seize upon the opportunities for family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) afforded by the Obama administration. As it has done in the past with new incoming administrations, PAI has produced a comprehensive "white paper" that lays out the policy changes needed in order for the U.S. to regain its historic leadership role on international FP/RH – and how these efforts will enhance U.S. efforts to save women and children’s lives, reduce poverty, fight climate change, and foster a more peaceful, sustainable world. 

Entitled "International Population & Family Planning Programs: An Agenda for the Obama Administration," the white paper highlights the significant role FP/RH programs must play in the Administration’s commitment to global health and security.  Among the report’s key recommendations are: (1) repeal of the Global Gag Rule, (2) refunding of UNFPA, and (3) increasing U.S. international FP/RH funding to $1 billion annually.  See the full report here.

Change.gov and PAI

President-Elect Obama has called for full transparency of his administration’s transition to power and has invited the American public to fully participate in this process.  For the President-elect’s administration, the Change.gov website is a concrete step in making the American people better aware and more involved in the legislative process.  The website displays transition documents from a wide range of people and groups, as well as archiving meetings held by civil society organizations attempting to help build the agenda of the next Administration.  

PAI’s “white paper” submission to the Obama administration, along with a cover letter signed by members of PAI’s board, addressed to the President-Elect, are now publicly available on the Obama-Biden transition website and can be accessed at:

http://change.gov/open_government/entry/popultion_action_international/

In concert with its coalition partners in the environmental, reproductive health, and foreign assistance communities. PAI has also participated in meetings with key members of the Obama transition team on the issues highlighted below. 

 

Reproductive Health Blueprint Project

As part of our coalition efforts, PAI has joined with more than 60 domestic and international reproductive rights groups in a transition "Blueprint" project that makes recommendations on these issues for the first 100 days of the Obama administration and beyond.  Like PAI's own white paper, the blueprint project includes calls for reversal of the Global Gag Rule, refunding of UNFPA, and $1 billion for international FP/RH programs.

 

Making the Case for U.S. International Family Planning Assistance

Over the past year, five former directors of the Population and Reproductive Health Program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under five different presidencies, including J. Joseph Speidel (1978-1983), Steven Sinding (1983-1986), Duff Gillespie (1986-1993), Elizabeth Maguire (1993-1999) and Margaret Neuse (2000-2006), have collaborated to produce a newly-released publication, entitled “Making the Case for U.S. International Family Planning Assistance.”  With over 201 million women professing an unmet need for family planning, this timely and comprehensive  report calls for the Obama administration and  Congress to provide a significant increase in  USAID’s FP/RH budget, which has declined significantly in recent years.

Among its’ series of detailed and valuable recommendations, “Making the Case for U.S. International Family Planning Assistance” articulates how significant increase in funding from current levels would reinvigorate   USAID’s historical status as a global leader in funding and technical resources for international population and family planning programs.  The report details how providing modern contraceptives to fill this unmet need for family planning would avert millions of unintended pregnancies and induced abortions each year, thereby preventing thousands of pregnancy-related deaths.  The report outlines how additional funding would allow USAID to build upon successful programs and expand into underserved countries; increased financial support would yield a strengthening of core areas such as training and equipping health care providers, and allow for a renewal of USAID’s technical leadership, support for global organizations and U.S. leadership overall. 

To read the report:
Making the Case for U.S. International Family Planning Assistance

Green Group

Population Action International is a member of the Green Group, a diverse coalition of U.S. environmental and conservation organizations that advocates on both domestic and international issues related to the environment, energy and climate change.  As part of the coalition’s efforts, more than 30 member organizations of the Green Group, including PAI, have produced a comprehensive white paper for the Obama administration entitled “Transition to Green”.  Among the dozens of policy recommendations in the report is a call for doubling U.S. funding for international FP/RH programs to $1 billion. The report notes that “the lack of access to modern family planning is a key driver of the more than 60 million annual unintended pregnancies worldwide and the resulting yearly net increase in global population of 80 million people. Population growth in the developing world remains a contributor to deforestation, desertification, the degradation of oceans and waterways and climate change. Investment in family planning is critical to the protection of the global environment."

PAI CEO Amy Coen recently joined fellow Green Group CEOs in a briefing with the top leadership of the Obama transition team to discuss the report’s recommendations.

See “Transition to Green” report at: [http://www.saveourenvironment.org/assets/transition-to-green-full-report.pdf]

Global HIV/AIDS Transition Paper

Over 100 organizations -- the majority of which work on HIV/AIDS including Physicians for Human Rights, Partners In Health, and the United Methodist Church; and roughly half of which work oversees -- sent the Obama Transition team a paper outlining the HIV/AIDS community's priorities for the first 100 days of the new Administration.  Among these priorities are: repeal of the Global Gag Rule, refunding of UNFPA, $1 billion for international FP/RH programs, and granting PEPFAR the authority to purchase contraceptives as an HIV prevention tool.  PAI was pleased to join the HIV/AIDS community in calling for changes that will greatly benefit the Obama administration's commitment to the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

[http://change.gov/open_government/entry/gar_documents/]

 

PAI Joins Call for New Global AIDS Coordinator

Population Action International joined close to fifty HIV/AIDS and Family Planning advocacy organizations in sending the following letter to President-elect Obama, urging him to appoint a new coordinator for the U.S. global AIDS program. While the program, commonly known as PEPFAR, has brought life-saving antiretroviral medication to millions in critical need, the program's prevention efforts have been weakened by politically-driven policies, including the exclusion of family planning services as an effective HIV prevention tool. Prevention efforts have also been weakened by insufficient resources. For every two people put on treatment, five more become infected; PEPFAR must dedicate more resources to preventing HIV infection beforetreatment is needed. PAI urges the Obama administration to appoint new leadership in order to better prioritize evidence-based prevention, expel politically-motivated mandates to the field, and restore U.S. leadership in the global effort to reduce the most number of HIV infections.

Letter to President-Elect Obama Calling for New Global AIDS Coordinator