2. CLOSING THE GAP
INTRODUCTION
TEN-YEAR GOALS
VISION
MISSION
Every person has access to high-quality,
effective and affordable family planning
and reproductive health services.
Population Action International
promotes universal access to family
planning and reproductive health
services through research, advocacy,
and innovative partnerships. Achieving
this mission will dramatically improve
the health and autonomy of women,
reduce poverty, strengthen civil
society, and protect the environment.
With nearly a quarter-billion women around the
world still lacking safe, effective family planning
and reproductive health services and therefore
unable to exercise their basic sexual and
reproductive rights, the mission of Population
Action International (PAI) has never been
more urgent. Maternal mortality rates remain
stubbornly high. Lack of access to contraception
drives up the rate of unintended pregnancies
and increases the need for abortions, many of
which are performed in unsafe conditions. The
gap in services undermines the twin goals of
maternal health and child survival, and it is a
cost borne by those least able to afford it.
By contrast, family planning offers profound
societal advantages, especially in the developing
world. Families where women have the ability
to space births have much better outcomes
in terms of health, education, and economic
productivity. Despite the clear case to be made,
closing the gap remains a challenge.
Fortunately, there is a path forward. Strong,
effectively linked research and advocacy can
make a lasting difference for family planning
and, by extension, for women and their families.
To make the biggest impact for women in
this uncertain operating environment, PAI will
concentrate on its core business: advocating
with partners for funding and supportive policies
for family planning and reproductive health.
While we are known for our work targeting
the U.S. government and donor countries, we
will now expand our efforts at the recipient
country level. Donor governments and interna-tional
institutions remain crucial, although much
work needs to be done to assess the impact of
distinct funding streams, competitive allocation
processes, and other disincentives throughout
the system.
Grounded in this premise and in dedication
to our mission, this strategic plan articulates
a common purpose and direction for PAI.
It provides a framework for setting goals,
allocating resources across the organization, and
holding ourselves accountable. By aligning PAI’s
institutional strengths around this integrated
strategy, we believe that we can make a lasting
difference for women at a uniquely challenging
time. Our blend of advocacy expertise, field
credibility, and research enables us to have
disproportionate impact relative to resources
expended.
By 2022, PAI will work with its partners to
mobilize the resources, policies, and political
willpower necessary to close the global gap in
family planning, an unmet need estimated at
222 million women. PAI will measure its progress
along three dimensions: funding, policy change,
and institutional sustainability, with specific
indicators of success listed for each of the major
goals:
●● Double annual funding for family planning
and reproductive health in low-income
countries from the 2012 baseline of $12.7
billion to $25.4 billion received from a
combination of the U.S. government,
international institutions and other global
donors, and from recipient country
governments.
●● Establish a supportive policy environment
for family planning and reproductive
health services.
●● Build PAI’s organizational capacity,
financial resources, brand, and Board
of Directors.
3. 10-YEAR STRATEGY & THREE-YEAR PRIORITIES
By the close of 2015, global development
frameworks such as the Millennium
Development Goals and International
Conference on Population and Development
will be revisited and renewed; another U.S.
presidential election will be on the horizon;
and the economic picture will have, at best,
steadied and started to recover. For these and
a host of other more practical reasons, PAI has
translated its ambitious 10-year goals into a
set of three-year organizational priorities that
will guide our annual planning process as well
as represent the first installment of progress
toward achievement of our plan. They are:
Expand PAI’s global advocacy programs
to intensify focus in a portfolio of priority
countries
●● Define and launch a portfolio of priority
countries—7-10 selected by 2015, with
three funded and operational. Our
country portfolio will likely include six
African countries, two countries from
Latin America and Caribbean and two
from the Asia Pacific region.
●● Based on portfolio analysis, work with
partners to prioritize two policies in
priority countries and support them to
develop and implement a three-year
policy strategy.
●● Establish and document a PAI model for
country presence, including a small grants
program strategy.
Increase funding and advance supportive
policies for the movement
●● Donor governments and agencies
disburse one-third of funding committed
at the London Summit, or comparable
global level commitments in three years.
●● Two PAI priority countries are on track to
meet their national family planning and
reproductive health commitments, as
defined under existing global frameworks.
●● Within three years, three non-tradi-tional
and emerging allies, including
emerging economies, middle income
countries, the private sector, sustain-ability
platforms, and social finance
mechanisms, make supportive policies or
resource commitments on family planning
and reproductive health and PAI has
developed a mechanism to track such
commitments.
●● Hold the line on U.S. government
appropriations for family planning for the
next three years.
●● Reaffirm the centrality of sexual and
reproductive health and rights to
development processes and frameworks.
Increase organizational effectiveness
and capacity
●● Increase and diversify funding for PAI to
implement the strategic plan.
●● Reallocate PAI’s financial resources in
to maximize efficiency and support the
priority country strategy.
●● Realign PAI’s intellectual resources to
support the priority country strategy.
●● Increase PAI’s visibility among target
audiences, particularly funders and civil
society partners.
●● Implement effective organizational
measures that support continuous quality
improvement in performance of PAI’s
work.
THREE-YEAR ORGANIZATIONAL PRIORITIES
4. THEORY OF CHANGE/MODEL FOR IMPACT
Over the next decade, PAI will help fill the unmet global need for contraception by advocating for funding and public policies that support increased access to family planning and reproductive health. Within this overarching advocacy frame, our model for impact focuses on three key elements:
Partnering with local institutions in developing countries: PAI works with a network of partners (typically local or indigenous organizations) in developing countries that are dedicated to key public health concerns. These include family planning and reproductive health, but also HIV and AIDS, maternal health, and sustainable development. PAI supports its local partners by providing seed funding for their projects, helping to translate and contextualize donor country and agency policy, advising on in-country political strategy, and offering research expertise, technical assistance, and communications assistance.
Mobilizing influencers in the U.S., European Union (EU), and developing countries:
PAI engages “grasstops” who influence family planning and reproductive health policies and funding. These include elected and appointed public officials, academics, private sector stakeholders and NGO thought leaders. PAI focuses on such high-level individuals in its advocacy with the U.S. Congress and administration; at the United Nations, through relevant agencies and country missions; in the EU and with international institutions; and in developing countries, through its partners. PAI does not accept funds from any government agency, enhancing its credibility as a convener and staunchly independent advocate.
Building a compelling evidence base: PAI produces high-quality, nonpartisan research and analysis that underlies every PAI initiative— and increasingly, the advocacy initiatives of partners. PAI focuses its research agenda on data and information that is both relevant and actionable to current policymaking. PAI’s research provides a rationale for investments in family planning and reproductive health across the development spectrum, in areas including the environment and climate change, women’s economic empowerment, and demography. The combination of these three components enables PAI to exert uniquely powerful influence in the policy arena, globally as well as locally.
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E-MAIL: PAI@POPACT.ORG
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