Kampala, Uganda

 Persisting unmet need for family planning can undermine the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals and compromise global efforts towards human development. Although more than 500 million couples in the developing world are satisfied family planning users, another 200 million seek to delay or avoid having a birth but are not using contraception. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 this demand will grow by 40 percent as record numbers of young people enter the prime reproductive ages.  In some African countries, the level of unmet need for family planning exceeds the level of contraceptive use.

While an extensive base of research on and experience with family planning programmes has accumulated over the past forty years, its recent volume is much lower. The economic impact of reproductive change, such as on poverty or national savings with shifting dependency burdens, needs updating with emerging data. Likewise, full potential of contraceptive practice in preventing unsafe and unnecessary abortions, maternal and neonatal deaths, or the transmission of HIV to newborns warrants more complete study. An international forum for scientific and programmatic exchange will enable the sharing of available findings and identification of knowledge gaps, as well as using new knowledge to transform development policy.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Makerere University's School of Public Health, along with other international and national partners, will organise an international conference on family planning research and best practices in Kampala, Uganda in November 2009. The dates for the conference are November 15 (evening opening) and November 16-17 (full days) with November 18 as an optional day for third-party sponsored meetings.

It is anticipated that the conference programme will include an opening plenary, multiple concurrent oral sessions, special panel presentations, poster sessions, lunchtime roundtables, a policymaker forum (tentative), and an exhibit area. Journalists will be invited to report on the event. In addition, pre and post-conference meetings and skill-building workshops are welcomed. A programme will be produced which will include all abstracts accepted for oral or poster presentation; and, all materials, including the abstracts and presentations, will be accessible on the conference website.

Call for Abstracts

The conference organisers are interested in receiving abstracts on "cutting edge" research and programme results pertaining to factors that enable individuals in the developing world to achieve their contraceptive and reproductive intentions. Research demonstrating the benefits of family planning to societies - from reduced poverty, accelerated development, and public sector savings with fewer youth dependents - is also solicited. Research and programmatic lessons demonstrating effects from factors observed over time through rigorous analysis methods will be given priority in abstract review.

Below are topics of special interest. An abstract with a focus that does not easily fit one of these will still be considered and should be submitted using the "Other topics" category on the form.

Topics of special interest:

1. Family planning in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

2. Wealth and contraception

3. Contraceptive practice and maternal and/or child health outcomes

4. Contraception and abortion

5. Effective linkages between or integration of family planning, sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/HIV, and maternal and newborn health programmes and policies

6. Family planning and the environment

7. Unmet and met contraceptive need levels and trends

8. Family planning and the "Demographic Dividend"

9. The "Family" in "Family Planning"

10. Contraceptive technology

11. Contraceptive security

12. Contraception, HIV, and pregnancy

13. Men and contraception

14. Effective family planning programme and service delivery components

15. Innovations in family planning financing

16. Innovations in use of technology to expand contraceptive access

17. Social and psychological determinants of family planning

18. Adolescents and contraception

19. Contraception, the urban poor, and other vulnerable populations

20. Family planning policy and evidence-based advocacy

21. Innovations in methods for contraceptive research

22. Contraception in relation to other proximate determinants of fertility

Individual abstract submission deadline is June 1 2009.

Preformed panel submission deadline is June 15 2009.

Participant registration will be available June 15 2009.

For more information, please click here.