Dr Gill Greer, Director-General of IPPF

On behalf of IPPF, thank you to Chris McCafferty, MP; to Sarah Brown, patron of the White Ribbon Alliance; and to Gillian Merron, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development. The experiences and insight that you have all shared reflect the commitment and passion each of you brings to improving people’s lives around the globe.

I would also like to express our very real thanks to Chris McCafferty, MP, for her leadership of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), also to the group’s members for their tireless support over the years. Our thanks are again due to Viscount Craigavon, Vice Chairman of the APPG, for co-hosting this event. Thank you to our government donors, including DFID and the governments of Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and Sweden who are represented here today. We are also pleased to have embassy representatives with us and a record number of co-sponsoring organizations – seventeen in total. IPPF has a long history of collaboration with many of you and we look forward to working with you to realize our shared vision of a world that is more equitable and just, and one where people can plan their families and plan their lives. Thank you all for joining us. We are truly delighted to have you with us.

As our speakers have shown, World Population Day is the ideal occasion to reflect on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to focus on the ICPD Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals with renewed vigour and energy.

Now in our 56th year, and as the world’s foremost provider of sexual and reproductive health services, IPPF plays an important role in ensuring that all people who want to have access to family planning services, are able to do so – together with full and honest information about sex and reproduction. Sarah has illustrated very well what our work with poor and marginalized groups has told us: that is, when people have access to contraception – when women can space their children and manage their fertility – they are empowered through choice, choices that enable them to plan and manage their lives.

Just briefly, there is one more important point that I would like to add to what has been said already. Family planning is vital for the health of mothers and their children, and it is equally vital in keeping young people safe and healthy and in enabling them to make choices that will affect the rest of their lives.

We have the largest generation of young people the world has ever seen. Adolescents need full and accurate sexuality education; they need to feel supported and comfortable to ask questions about sex, and to seek services; and they need access to contraception. One and a half billion young people are entering their sexual and reproductive lives, and meeting their demand for family planning is an urgent challenge and a vital necessity. We simply cannot and must not ignore the needs and rights of young people.

We must act now to ensure that the MDGs are met, and especially to ensure that the target of universal access to reproductive health is achieved by 2015.

IPPF look forward to continuing to build upon its long term partnerships with DfID, donors, governments, other civil society groups, and with parliamentarians who have such a key role to play as the bridge between people and the legislature. Thank you all for your interest and support.

World population day co-sponsors:

FPA, ACCM, Action Aid, COMMAT, FORWARD, Health Unlimited, Human Rights Watch, Interact Worldwide, Marie Stopes International, Population Sustainability Network, SafeHands for Mothers, Student Partnerships Worldwide, Voluntary Services Overseas, White Ribbon Alliance, WOMANKIND Worldwide, Women and Children First (UK), and the Youth Coalition