After eight years of work in Africa and Asia, FP2030 has arrived in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and it is here to stay. Why wasn’t FP2020 more present in the LAC region, and what has changed now? Several exciting shifts have led to this moment.

Almost exactly ten years ago, in July 2012, the Government of the United Kingdom and the Gates Foundation made a call to save lives through rights-based family planning at the London Summit on Family Planning. The summit launched FP2020 with a goal to enable 120 million additional users of voluntary, rights-based contraception in the 69 lowest-income countries in the world by 2020. The partnership was very successful; generating commitments from donors, cooperation agencies, academia, international bodies, civil society, foundations, and the private sector to facilitate voluntary access to family planning services and commodities in their communities. But because FP2020 only focused on the lowest-income countries at the time, only a few countries from the LAC region were included in its purview: Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

As a result, Latin America and Caribbean countries didn’t gain much visibility from the London Summit, and sexual and reproductive health and maternal and child health issues persisted. The region later spoke out themselves regarding these issues at the first Latin American and Caribbean Conference: "Reducing Inequities in Sexual and Reproductive Health,” in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 2016. The conference was a watershed moment for the region, and for the family planning movement to better include LAC countries. Two hundred participants from 26 countries generated rights-based country plans around three themes: Access, Quality and Demand; Intersectionality, Partnerships, and Advocacy; and Financing and Accountability. Although FP2020 didn’t directly work with countries outside its original mandated 69 focus countries, the partnership co-financed this conference in an effort to maintain connections and progress in the region.

As FP2020 has now sunset and FP2030 begins as a new initiative, FP2030 has several key differences that allow for the LAC region to join the FP2030 support network. First, FP2030 is based on a model that welcomes all countries, civil society and youth organizations, regional, national and international organizations, cooperation agencies, collectives, multilateral organizations, academia, donors, and private sector partners to join cross-sectoral efforts and foster accountability, transparency and visibility.

FP2030 is also moving from one Secretariat based in Washington, DC, to a decentralized Support Network model. It will have five regional hubs, including a hub in Latin America or the Caribbean, from which the support network will promote and convene dialogue among governments, civil society, academia and national and regional bodies with decades of commitments and work on the family planning and contraception agenda in the region. To learn more about the Latin America & Caribbean FP2030 hub, please join our upcoming webinar.

The arrival of FP2030 in the region is an opportunity to join efforts and agendas to reposition family planning and contraception on a regional and ultimately global scale. So much work has already been done in this region by so many advocates and other key stakeholders – we hope FP2030 can serve to amplify those efforts, and unite us all under a shared agenda. Please join us as we work to build a world where everyone, everywhere can make decisions about their own reproductive future.