10-Year Strategy & Three-Year Priorities 2013-2022

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.

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

THEORY OF CHANGE/MODEL FOR IMPACTOver 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 adminis-tration; 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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