Plan International Australia says loss of funding is a ‘stunning failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Aid groups have attacked the Australian government for slashing its foreign aid spending on family planning and urged it to fill a leadership void left by the Trump administration.

Australia’s aid funding for family planning has halved from $46.4m in 2013/14 to AU$23.7m in 2015/16, according to new figures on the nation’s overseas development assistance budget.

The loss of funding has sparked concerns from a consortium for international sexual and reproductive health and rights, which has called for the government to reinstate the funding and commit an additional $10m annually for three years.

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One member of the consortium, Plan International Australia, said the loss of government funding represented a “stunning failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable”.



Plan International said the overall reduction in family planning funding was at odds with the Gillard government’s 2012 pledge to double its contribution to family planning services to $53 million a year.

The cuts also come at a time of pressing need for women’s health and family planning funding.

Earlier this year, the United States president, Donald Trump, expanded a Reagan-era policy banning foreign aid to international healthcare providers who discuss abortion or advocate abortion rights.

Plan International Australia’s deputy chief executive, Susanne Legena, said the vacuum left by the loss of US aid funding – traditionally a major chunk of international contributions – must be filled by countries such as Australia.

Legena said the halving of family planning funding in Australia’s aid budget would have a massive impact in developing countries, where 800 women and girls die from giving birth in dangerous situations every day.

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“Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death for women and children worldwide,” Legena told Guardian Australia.



“The impact is massive, both in terms of lives and health. But the biggest impact is that, if you can’t decide when and how you have children, it limits your ability to participate in education or work. It has these massive knock-on effects.”

The aid group has started a letter-writing campaign aimed at the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, who Legena acknowledged was a “real champion of women’s equality and family planning”.

The campaign is seeking to convince Bishop to meet Australia’s commitment to boost family planning funding before a family planning summit in London on 11 July.



But Bishop defended the government’s commitment to reproductive and sexual health, saying it was a priority of the foreign policy and aid program. “We committed $303m in funding for maternal and child health, including reproductive healthcare, in 2015-16,” she said in a statement.

“Access to sexual and reproductive health services remains critical to women’s empowerment, improving gender equality, and reducing maternal and child mortality.”

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Bishop pleged $9.5m in February for the sexual and reproductive health program in crisis and post crisis settings. That program aims to strengthen sexual and reproductive health in the Indo-Pacific region, and has been supported since 2007.

The government also provides funding for safer birthing environments, sexual and reproductive services in crisis settings, HIV prevention and treatment, and assistance to survivors of rape and violence in foreign crises.

The total development budget will increase from $3.912bn in 2017-18 to $4.01bn in 2018-19. But the increases are in line with consumer price index rises, and the aid budget will then be frozen for another two years, saving $200m, according to Fairfax Media.



Even at their peak in 2018-19, spending levels will still be below the 2010-11 level of $4.3bn.

The aid budget has been hit by successive Coalition governments began by the Abbott government, including a $1bn hit that was taken from the 2015-16 aid budget.

The cuts were seen as Australia reneging on a commitment to boost funding to 0.5% of gross national income by 2017, made by Australia to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s development assistance committee.