Grant Highlights 2006 - 2007
POPULATION & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The field of Population and Reproductive Health is a core concern of the Compton Foundation because of its impact on the environment and relations between nations, as well as its contribution to the health and well-being of individual women, men and children.
Compton Emergency Contraception Initiative
Launched in May 2001, the Foundation's six-year $7 million Emergency Contraception (EC) initiative has been focused on mainstreaming EC in both U.S. and international systems of care. Domestically, an initial grant to the Public Health Institute's Pharmacy Access Project led to California's model system for providing access to EC without a prescription. After EC became available nationwide without a prescription, more recent grants have targeted groups who face continuing barriers to access, such as young adolescents and low-income women.
Internationally the Compton Foundation provided multi-year support to the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception, as well as start-up funding for the Latin American Consortium for Emergency Contraception, ECAfrique and the Asia Pacific Network for EC. Since the founding of these regional organizations, and because of their success, several donors have partnered with the Compton Foundation to provide ongoing support.
In October 2007, the Foundation commissioned a Report summarizing the Compton Foundation’s Emergency Contraception Initiative. Download the complete report in PDF format.
Increasing public and private resources for international family planning is a major Foundation priority.
- The public's awareness of the reality and potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change is growing rapidly. With support from the Foundation, Brown University demographer and climate change researcher Brian O'Neill (now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research) and his colleagues have developed a preliminary model examining the impact on climate of different population growth scenarios. This model suggests that lowering population growth by rapidly addressing the unmet global need for family planning could have a significant effect on the severity of future climate change. Once completed, results of this research will be widely disseminated to policymakers and others concerned about mitigating climate change.
- The relationship between population growth and environmental harm is complex, as is the history of international family planning programs. With the unprecedented environmental challenges now facing the planet, family planning programs that respect human rights are needed more than ever. With Compton Foundation support, The Center for Resource Economics (Island Press) is sponsoring author Laurie Mazur to edit a book examining these linkages. Based on her research, Ms. Mazur has articulated a justice-based framework that has the potential to foster support for family planning programs that support both women and the environment.
- International Financial Institutions (IFIs), including the World Bank and regional development banks, represent a relatively untapped source of funding for family planning. These institutions collectively spend $100 billion each year in development assistance and poverty reduction. While most IFI policy guidelines call for support for family planning and other reproductive health services, IFIs spend only a fraction of their investments on these services. The Foundation is supporting Gender Action to undertake research, education, networking and advocacy to increase IFIs' funding for reproductive health programs in developing countries where fertility rates remain high.
- Building the skills of reproductive health advocates around the world is increasingly critical, as developing countries assume greater responsibility for determining how international aid is allocated. While in 2005 world leaders voiced support for integrating reproductive health into activities to achieve the United Nation's anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals, skilled in-country activists are needed to assure that leaders' promises are kept. With Foundation support, Family Care International developed advocacy materials and undertook training and other activities to increase the capacity of non-governmental organizations in Burkina Faso and Costa Rica to advocate for the inclusion of reproductive health services into national and local policy.
The Foundation remains committed to expanding the professional capacity of young leaders from developing countries in population and reproductive health.
- The Compton Foundation's Population Fellows Program supports scholars from sub-Saharan Africa, Mexico, or Latin America who are pursuing advanced degrees at leading U.S. based universities, through a grant to the Population Reference Bureau. Compton Population Fellows conduct their research in their country or region of origin, and are committed to returning home after completing their degrees. The Fellowships support interdisciplinary research, which explores linkages between population, environment, and/or security issues. The ultimate goal of the Fellowship program is to increase the capacity of young leaders to affect policy and improve the effectiveness of population, family planning, and reproductive health programs throughout Africa and Latin America.
In its domestic grants, the Foundation places a high priority on ensuring and improving access to family planning services. The Foundation places special emphasis on expanding support for these services by reframing the public debate on reproductive health issues.
- Creating language that resonates with the American public is a key challenge for reproductive health advocates. In many states, legislators who support reproductive health and rights must learn to work with conservative colleagues to protect women's access to comprehensive reproductive health services. The Foundation supported the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) to train legislators in communications and messaging skills. CPA complements this training with ongoing mentoring and network development.
- Social conservatives often base their opposition to reproductive health services in terms of religious freedom, resulting in public debate that pits religious rights against reproductive rights. With Compton Foundation support, the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) seeks to reframe religiously based refusals to provide care as substandard medicine. The NHeLP has conducted research on how refusals conflict with medical standards of care, and is currently developing strategies to disseminate and communicate its findings to different audiences, including medical and public health professionals.
- The Foundation has a longstanding interest in the interrelationship between population and the environment. In this arena, the Foundation has taken a leadership role in calling attention to environmental toxins that threaten fertility and child development. The Foundation is supporting a pilot project of Planned Parenthood - Mar Monte, in collaboration with Acterra and the Community Breast Health Project, to address this connection. These organizations are partnering with the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, which, with Foundation support, has become a national leader in engaging reproductive health and rights organizations in these issues. By advocating for the health of pregnant women and children, these efforts also help counteract efforts to paint reproductive health advocates as anti-child.
- With the many policy setbacks of the past several years, increased access to family planning services through state Medicaid programs stands out as a success story. With Compton Foundation support, The Guttmacher Institute has examined how 26 states have leveraged the different strengths of Medicaid and Title X programs to expand access to services. The organization is currently receiving Foundation support to examine "best practices" in these "Medicaid expansion programs," in order to strengthen existing programs and encourage additional states to implement such programs.
The Foundation is also committed to improving domestic systems of care.
- Training clinicians in the provision of early abortion services offers a promising strategy for addressing the shrinking pool of abortion providers. Family medicine physicians serve women throughout the country, in underserved areas with few or no abortion providers. Compton support is helping the Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP) train family medicine residents and practicing doctors in the provision of early abortion services. However RHAP has found that, once trained, providers can still face barriers to integrating abortion care into their practices. The Foundation is currently supporting RHAP to establish a network and mentoring system to address these barriers.
- Documentary films, with their focus on storytelling and putting human faces on abstract issues, offer powerful tools to motivate activists and create an awareness of issues among those who do not currently identify themselves activists. With Compton support for outreach, Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt of Cine Qua Non are creating a documentary film about the abortion debate, as it plays out on a Native American Reservation in South Dakota, against the backdrop of that state's rejection of an abortion ban.
Download these highlights in PDF format.