According to new financial data, 13 European donor governments and the European Union (EU) substantially increased global funding to sexual and reproductive health and family planning (SRH/FP) in 2022. This increase offsets curtailed support observed in 2021 and brings back European support to SRH/FP at slightly higher levels than in 2020. In contrast with this fluctuating trend, funding for the broader sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) agenda remained steady over the past couple of years.
14 European donors* prioritized investments in SRH/FP within the overall SRHR agenda and against other key areas. But while the level of funding for SRH/FP has significantly increased (+14%, providing a total of 1.622 billion Euros), the level of funding to overall SRHR was maintained at the same level as the previous year (2.889 billion Euros).
Countdown 2030 Europe welcomes the increased levels of funding to UNFPA which bring communities one step closer to achieving sexual and reproductive freedom and safety. This surge was mainly due to almost double overall contributions to UNFPA Supplies Partnerships. In total, European countries spent 790 million Euros on SRHR channeled through this agency, which is 19% more than in 2021.
Contributions to SRH/FP in 2022 had a real impact on people’s lives by helping to ensure access to modern contraceptive care for 20 million women and couples, at a minimum, and to avoid at least 7 million unintended pregnancies.
But UNFPA estimates that donors will need to increase their investment eightfold to meet people’s need for safe and modern methods of contraception by 2030. We ask European donors to make sure their financial commitments match the extent of the existing needs.
There continues to be a significant room to scale up the weight of both SRH/FP and SRHR as a share of countries’ annual Official Development Assistance (ODA). It is evident that when priorities are clear, money follows. In 2022, individual European donors allocated only between 0.3 – 4.8% of their ODA to SRH/FP (against 0.3 – 5.7% in 2021) and between 1.0 – 5.9% of their ODA to SRHR (against 0.8 – 7.5% in the previous year). But during the same year, European donors allocated between 7 – 51% of their ODA to in-donor refugee costs, a massive difference when looking at the share of support to sexual and reproductive care worldwide of those same donor governments.
“We welcome the increased financial support to sexual health and family planning. It makes a huge difference to communities across the globe, where people can lead healthy, safe and free sexual and reproductive lives because of this support. But, it’s a missed opportunity to not prioritize SRHR further as a share of Official Development Assistance. The resources exist, but it’s a matter of political will and clear prioritization of the health, autonomy and rights of communities around the world.”
Eef Wuyts, Director of External Relations with IPPF European Network
Such a big portion of ODA being allocated to in-donor-refugee costs has placed many European donors in the peculiar position of being the primary recipients of their own Official Development Assistance. While it is absolutely essential that countries support refugees, including in-donor refugee costs as ODA, this can lead to a distorted picture according to which European countries have increased support for partner countries.
“We believe that now is when standing by our values matters most. We must treat all people with dignity and humanity, not despite, but because we are faced with multiple crises caused by war and inflation. We all share a moral and social responsibility to ensure that everyone is treated with decency and that starts with guaranteeing we all have agency over our bodies” continues Eef Wuyts.
The report also identified the top two overall contributors to SRH/FP and SRHR funding in absolute terms namely the UK, which recovered this place after falling behind in 2021, followed very closely by the Netherlands. The third highest contributor for SRH/FP funding was Sweden, which kept this position despite decreasing its overall investments in 2022, and France for SRHR funding.
“European donor governments and the EU have spent years pushing for gender equality and SRHR at home and in the international cooperation programmes they support abroad. Tracking What Counts also reveals that they have been great supporters of relationship and sexuality education globally. We truly hope to see their future prioritization reflect their commitments.”
Chiara Cosentino, Coordinator – Countdown 2030 Europe
For more information and to access the full Tracking What Counts 2022-2023 report.
