Population Dynamics
As of the year 2011, seven billion people now live on Earth. Much has to be done in order to reduce poverty, to provide universal access to health care and family planning, and to decrease our high consumption of resources. This is where DSW steps in with its development programmes and advocacy work.
Many women give birth to more children than they want due to a lack of contraceptives and effective family planning. With the implementation of our Youth-to-Youth Initiative, we are educating thousands of young people in Africa about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and on how to create a healthy and independent future for themselves.
Furthermore, DSW's comprehensive advocacy work is done by talking to and engaging with national, local and international political authorities. In our dialogue we advocate for the necessity of voluntary family planning and reproductive health.
Interfaith Declaration to Improve Family Health and Well-Being
DSW, working with core partners Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) and Muhammadiyah, have conducted an extended consultation (by phone, email and face to face) process with religious leaders and faith based institutions regarding their willingness to support advocacy for reproductive health and/or family planning.
The consultations climaxed in an interfaith meeting held in Nairobi Kenya in June 2011. The consensus process and the Nairobi meeting resulted in a Consensus Statement /Declaration unanimously agreed on and endorsed by Christian-Catholic, Christian-Protestant, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist religious leaders.
The declaration expresses clear interfaith support for providing information and means for couples to control the timing and spacing of their children consistent with their own faith and needs. It is endorsed by all the faith-based organizations participating in the conference while secular organisations each indicated their support of the declaration content and its intent. Both endorsers (faith based organizations, religious leaders and religious institutions) and supporters (secular welfare organizations, CSOs, NGOs, NSAs) of the Declaration will continue to be registered and will be called upon through the global interfaith advocacy network to participate in various activities in support of family planning.
DSW, CCIH and Muhammadiyah invite you to register your agreement with the content and intent by endorsing or supporting the Declaration. Please register your agreement and indicate category of support by writing to peter.munene@dsw-brussels.org. Please include the full contact details.
The Exact Wording of the Declaration
We, leaders of religious institutions and faith based organizations (FBO), believe that health is a universal value held by all faiths and a universal right for human beings.
Our faith traditions, spiritual values and commitment to social justice lead us to believe passionately that families should not suffer needlessly because they lack access to health services.
We acknowledge the evidence that the health benefits of access to education and services, and thereby averting unintended pregnancies, can be substantial. Each year lack of family planning services and education in developing countries results in an estimated 600,000 newborn deaths; 150,000 maternal deaths from abortion and other pregnancy-related causes; and at least 340,000 children lose their mother.
We recognize the importance of access to information about and services to enable families to plan the timing and spacing of their pregnancies consistent with their faith for family well-being, for achievement of country health targets and to support achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
We respect the choice of families based on their own faith and needs and know that stronger, healthier and thriving families and communities result when couples jointly plan their families.
In this Declaration, we commit to leveraging our networks to support family health by providing education and services that enable families to plan the timing and spacing of their pregnancies consistent with their faith. We call on others to support this initiative to influence government and donor policies and funding.
Endorsers & Supporters
For a full overview of the endorsers and supporters of this initiative, please click here.
Press Release Statement
Statement: Religious Leaders Support Access to Family Planning
World Health Day, April 2012
As the EU negotiates the future of its development cooperation policies and financing instruments, religious leaders from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist constituents have raised the importance of achieving the unmet need for family planning. On the occasion of World Health Day, DSW reminded the EU of their call on the international community to commit to this crucial health issue. Click here for the full statement.
