MALE CONTRACEPTION UPDATE

We think the opportunity to restore contraceptive research and development funding in the US is so important that we’re saving the rest of this month’s news for our June newsletter! Read on to learn how you can help make this change.

Urgent: Ask Congress to restore contraceptive research funding

Once a year, Congress decides how to spend your tax dollars, and once a year, you have a chance to tell your congresspeople what’s important to you, and how you think they should allocate federal funding.

As they get back from their Memorial Day weekend, members of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs will choose how much money to give to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Senate will review the House recommendations a week or two later. What they decide can make or break contraceptive research.

Reproductive health has friends in Congress; every year they ignore the White House’s requests to slash reproductive health budgets and they instead preserve funding. But while Randall Tobias ran USAID before resigning in scandal last month (see below), less and less of that funding went to contraceptive research.

Why does this matter so much? Because USAID is one of only two funding sources for contraceptive development in the US. Last year, an external review stated that USAID’s departure from this field would have devastating impacts. If the US loses the expertise of this generation of contraceptive researchers, we may never catch up again.

Let’s persuade Congress to set aside money specifically for USAID’s contraceptive development programs. Take two minutes to sign this letter to your congressperson or customize your own. If you live in Vermont, or in Nita Lowey’s district in New York, your letter will be especially valuable!

The time to act is now: once the appropriations language is written, it will be hard to make a difference. The 2008 budget – which will be written by mid-July – will determine whether USAID can finish the contraceptive development it has started. This investment in the future will pay dividends for public health, the environment, and social justice.

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Scandal at international health funding organizations: Resignations create opportunity for change

Paul Wolfowitz, former President of the World Bank, and Randall Tobias, former Director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), have been in the public spotlight this month. The details of their reasons for resigning have overshadowed the importance of these events for the global reproductive health community. Together, the World Bank and USAID provide a very large portion of the funding globally available for reproductive health products, services and training. Under Wolfowitz and Tobias, both organizations have been involved in internal struggles over reproductive health policy and funding allocations.

In mid-April, World Bank staffers leaked revisions of a policy document that would have altered the Bank’s health strategy, “making women's access to reproductive health services, including abortions, more restrictive.” European governments and advocacy organizations from around the world lobbied intensively to remove the new language. The policy document has since been changed, and advocacy groups who have seen the new language report that it “now recognises the reproductive health rights of women.”

At USAID, Randall Tobias had declared his interest in moving as much of USAIDS’ funding to overseas field offices as possible, which means there is little funding for the centrally-funded programs such as contraceptive research. With Tobias’ resignation, there is a new opportunity to reinstate full funding for crucial contraceptive development programs, which are our investment in the future. Take two minutes to send a letter to Congress telling them to support contraceptive research and development.

Read more:
World Bank head Wolfowitz to quit, 18 May, BBC Worldservice
Tobias Resigns: What Next for Foreign Aid Reform?, 27 April, Center for Global Development

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Editors

Elaine Lissner, Director of the Male Contraception Information Project (MCIP)
Email: info@NewMaleContraception.org
MCIP is entirely nonprofit and works in three areas: raising public awareness of promising nonhormonal male contraceptives, advocating increased and expedited government research, and serving as a resource for journalists who wish to write about the subject.

Kirsten Thompson, Director of the Male Contraception Coalition (MCC)
Email: info@MaleContraceptives.org
The Coalition’s objectives are to speed the development of new male contraceptives through increased legislative and institutional support, to raise funds for applied male contraception research and development, and to educate the public about the work of the research community.