President Kikwete arrives in London for a ground breaking International Family Planning Summit

 President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete is received at the Regency Hyatt Churchhill hotel in London today July 10, 2012 ready to attend  a two-day a ground breaking International Family Planning Summit. The Summit is scheduled to launch a Global Movement to give an additional 120 million women in the World’s poorest countries, access to lifesaving family planning information, services and supplies by 2020. 

The United Kingdom’s Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the support of UNFPA and other partners, are hosting the summit, whose envisaged increased access will enable these women and girls to choose whether, when and how many children to have.

 This Summit is a collective opportunity to generate global commitments to increase access to family planning and, in doing so, accelerate the achievement of MDGs 4 (reducing child mortality) and 5 (improving maternal health) – including MDG target 5b (reproductive health) – as well as MDG target 6a (HIV prevention).

It will build on the momentum created by the UN Secretary General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, “Every Woman, Every Child”, and the innovative public-private and civil society partnerships that are developing through the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC) and their Hand to Hand Campaign.

 Leaders from developing and developed countries, donors, civil society groups and the private sector will come together behind a simple vision: to give women in the developing world the same access to lifesaving family planning as women in the developed world.