ICRW’s Ravi Verma Selected to Advise on Family Planning Commitments

The International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Ravi Verma has been selected from hundreds of applicants worldwide to serve on a working group that will provide technical guidance on achieving commitments made during last year’s London Summit on Family Planning.

Verma, who leads ICRW’s Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, will be one of 18 members of the Rights and Empowerment Working Group for Family Planning 2020 (FP2020), a global partnership forged after the London Summit. During the 2012 summit, more than 150 leaders from donor and developing countries, the private sector and international organizations – including ICRW – made commitments to improve women’s and girls’ access to contraceptive information, services and supplies. Donors also pledged an additional $2.6 million in funding.

FP2020 is now working with governments, multi-lateral organizations, the research community and others to implement commitments to enable 120 more million women and girls to access contraceptives by 2020. Its working groups will be instrumental in guiding these efforts.

“I’m excited and feel very privileged to have been selected to this strategic role globally,” said Verma, who will serve a two-year term.

FP2020 received more than 350 applications from 61 countries for membership to its working groups. Verma’s group will provide guidance and support to other working groups on rights-based approaches to family planning. The other groups formed by FP2020 will focus on:

·      Country Engagement – to facilitate access to funding, technical assistance and country-to-country support for family planning programs

·      Performance Monitoring and Accountability – to enable data collection and analysis necessary to improve accountability in implementing financial, policy and program commitments

·      Market Dynamics – to better the availability, affordability, information and quality of family planning methods

Related:

Breaking the Invisible Barriers to Birth Control

Women’s Demand for Reproductive Control

ICRW Commits to Build Evidence on Women’s Access to Family Planning Services