Voluntary access to family planning should be made more easily available to poor communities in least developed countries to assist their ability to adapt to the harmful effects of a changing climate according to a researcher from The Australian National University.
Associate Professor Colin Butler from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU has co-authored a report calling for increases in voluntary, rights-based family planning to complement other climate change adaptation programs in developing countries.
The findings have been published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The paper analyses climate change action programs from 40 developing countries. Nearly all of the programs studied identified at least one way that population growth increases the harmful effects of climate change.
“Whether it is faster degradation of natural resources, increased demand for resources, or heightened human vulnerability to extreme weather events, the fact that most countries indicated that at least one of these areas is of concern suggests that something needs to be done,” Associate Professor Butler said.
“We argue that voluntary access to family planning services, including those integrated with HIV/AID services, should be made more available to poor communities, especially in the least developed countries and form part of their climate change adaption strategy.”
Associate Professor Butler emphasises that there is a distinction between their approach, which prioritises the welfare of poor communities affected by climate change, and the other argument occasionally made, that calls for population growth to be slowed in low-income countries to limit increases in global carbon emissions.
“Our report reveals that governments in least developed countries are highly concerned about the impact of population growth upon their capacity to adapt to climate change and are demanding better access to family planning services.
“Rwanda’s population is expected to double by 2050 and Uganda’s is expected to triple. These countries and others are leading the call for greater access to family planning so they can tackle ongoing problems associated with climate change, like food insecurity, resource depletion, fresh water shortages and the spread of disease.”
Associate Professor Butler has called for national and international commitment to address the issue.
“At the national level, we need to see the integration of family planning programs shared by departments of health as well as ministries. At the international level we need to rectify the chronic underfunding for family planning assistance across the board.”
