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25 September 2024, New York - During his visit to New York to participate in the Future Summit and the UN General Assembly, IPPF Director General Dr Alvaro Bermejo held a side bilateral meeting with Mr Kazuhiko Nakamura, Director General and Assistant Minister for Global Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to promote universal health coverage and women, peace and security.  Dr Bermejo thanked the Government of Japan for the long-standing cooperation with and its consistent support since 1969. Dr Bermejo introduced IPPF and its Member Associations and Collaborative Partners operating in 152 countries, stating that in 2023, IPPF provided 22.4 million services to 71.4 million people worldwide. He further stated that in 2023, thanks to support from the Japanese Government's supplementary budget, IPPF was able to provide life-saving sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services to 291,723 people in crisis across four countries; namely Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Ukraine. He stressed that the IPPF and its Member Associations are playing an important role in the growing need for humanitarian assistance worldwide due to the effects of global climate change and increasing conflicts. He also confirmed that the IPPF is actively working on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) issues, which Japan attaches great importance to. Dr Bermejo also referred to the importance of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Japan's leadership and notable pioneering initiatives and activities in this area. In response, Mr Kazuhiko Nakamura, Director General and Ambassador for Global Issues, stated that SRHR is a fundamental component of UHC and that progress in SRHR is essential to achieve UHC. Furthermore, these Mr Nakamura and Dr Bermejo agreed that Japan and the IPPF will further strengthen their cooperation, as it is impossible to fully realise UHC without addressing the SRH needs that the population has. In an increasingly polarised global situation regarding SRHR, Secretary-General Bermejo stressed the importance of balanced voices such as Japan as a bridge to facilitate dialogue in order to prevent global fragmentation. In particular, he noted the need for efforts to shift attention away from using SRHR as a political power struggle and towards the real issue of addressing ways and means to promote gender equality and health in particular.

With support from the Government of Japan, International Planned Parenthood Federation’s (IPPF) Member Associations in five countries, namely Afghanistan, Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen, will provide urgent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to communities affected by natural disasters and conflict situations.  These IPPF Member Associations will: Provide sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and maternal and child health services for women and girls and marginalized communities in six remote and flood affected provinces in Afghanistan; Provide urgent sexual and reproductive health services to communities affected by the escalating violence in Palestine; Improve accessibility of services and community sustainability to decrease sexual and reproductive health-related mortality and morbidity of women and girls in three States with high internally-displaced populations in Sudan; Restore health facilities and access to maternal health services in conflict affected areas for populations affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine;  Provide critical sexual, reproductive and maternal health care to internally displaced people and local communities in Yemen. This vital funding from Japan will help with provision of badly needed but currently missing health services, especially for women, so that they can live with dignity and free from unwanted pregnancies, death of themselves and their newborns, and reproductive ill-health. It will allow us to provide essential and quality SRH and maternal and child health services in the communities, prevent and manage the consequences of sexual and gender-based violence, including the clinical management of rape, equip community-based midwives with skills to provide high quality obstetric and neonatal services and strengthen health information systems to collect high quality data to respond to the needs and priorities of women and girls’ health. IPPF Director General, Dr Alvaro Bemejo, said, "I offer heartfelt thanks to the Government of Japan for their  unparalleled generosity to enable IPPF to respond to the needs of women and girls caught up in crises around the world. This generosity will allow IPPF and our local partners to provide a critical lifeline to the growing number of people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance."   By the end of December 2024, IPPF, through our local partners in the five countries, will aim to deliver health services and information to at least 239,000 people in total.   For further information, please contact Yuri Taniguchi, IPPF London Office, at [email protected].   Photo Credits: IPPF/Hannah Maule-ffinch/Sudan