Manila summit on family planning set Nov. 15

MANILA, Philippines - The stage is set for the holding of the first-ever Summit on Family Planning in the Business Sector on Nov. 15 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

The Manila Summit will gather captains of industry, chief executive officers and top management officials of private companies from all over the Philippines to present and share best practices, templates of business models on family planning and family health initiatives in the workplace, in workers’ communities, or as corporate social responsibility programs.

The one-day Manila Summit will be the first to be held after the successful holding last July 11 of the London Summit on Family Planning, where more than 150 leaders from donor and developing countries, international agencies, civil society, foundations and the private sector entered into commitments in support of voluntary family planning services.

The commitments sought to provide access to family planning and family health services to an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries by the year 2020.

The London Summit was organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and co-hosted by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The forthcoming Manila Summit is also under the auspices of the UNFPA and the UK embassy in Manila together with the Zuellig Family Foundation in the Philippines.

Next month’s holding of the Manila Summit was formally announced at the Mandarin Hotel yesterday during a breakfast meeting with business leaders by British ambassador Stephen Lillie, UNFPA resident representative Ugochi Daniels, and former foreign secretary Roberto Romulo, chairman of Zuellig Family Foundation.

Also at the meeting were officials from the Department of Health (DOH) led by Secretary Enrique Ona, Donald Dee as vice chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and also representing the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP); and Eduardo Francisco, president of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).

In his welcome remarks, the British ambassador encouraged the Philippine business community to spearhead private sector efforts to mobilize support to increase family planning services.

“The Philippines has long believed that access to family planning information, services and supplies is a fundamental and essential right that is key to inclusive growth and sustainable development,” Lillie said.

“The government is working to establish a national policy on reproductive health and population development and to allocate funds to implement this vital policy,” Lillie pointed out in reference to the pending Reproductive Health (RH) bill pending approval by the 15th Congress.

Lillie disclosed they have invited President Aquino to give the keynote address of the Manila Summit to “signal support from the highest level” of government for this private sector-led initiative to promote family planning services for Filipino workers.

“I know the unique sensibilities of Filipinos. This summit will be a Filipino event,” Lillie said.

“While my government cares passionately for the rights of women and children, the British government and the British embassy here in particular do not wish to dictate, we want to pass on the baton from the London Summit to the Manila Summit and from there, the Manila Summit to take over,” he stressed. 

On the part of the UNFPA, Daniels said this UN specialized agency has been trying to put together a range of partners to maximize support for family planning services such as in the Philippines, which she warned has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in this part of the world.

“From the perspective, the huge contribution of the private sector is innovation and therefore is able to implement innovations much more quickly than the government and non-government sector,” Daniels pointed out.

“The passing of the baton from the London Summit to Manila Summit will be for the good of Filipinos. Our role is just to facilitate and support it. It’s good for business. It’s good for the workers. It’s good for everyone,” Daniels said.

For his part, Ona thanked the organizers of the Manila Summit and specifically cited ambassador Lillie for leading this initiative.

“And for hosting this low-key yet very historic meeting of business sector leaders to talk about boosting productivity through improved family welfare and promotion of family planning,” the health secretary said.

In a 2008 survey, Ona said only about one in three married women or 34 percent were able to practice modern and effective means of family planning in the Philippines.

According to Ona, lack of access to family planning services and information is partly the reason why poor Filipino women continue to have more children than they intended.

Around six million Filipino women are estimated to have “unmet need” for modern family planning services, either for birth spacing or for limiting births, he said.