The period 2019-2020 was one of contrasts: on the one hand, 2019 broke new ground for overall European support to SRH/FP – looking at the newest Countdown 2030 Europe donor tracking data, and commitments made by European donors in Nairobi at the ICPD+25 the end of 2019. On the flip side, the Coronavirus that spread across the world in 2020 will most likely have drastic impact levels on Official Development Assistance (ODA), including for SRH/FP.
The analysis done by the Countdown 2030 Europe Consortium shows a significant increase of financial contributions to SRH/FP in the context of international development: most European donors (eight out of 12) analysed in this report either increased or maintained their level of funding. This is of relevance considering that overall levels of ODA largely remained the same in 2019.
The combined figure for all 12 European donor countries gives an estimated support of 1.17 billion Euros for 2019, an overall increase of 13% when compared to 2018 and 74% compared to 2012.
Germany brought in the most significant increase in percentage growth of funding for SRH/FP since 2018, equivalent to an additional 50%. Increased support to SRH/FP was followed by the UK (29%) and France (28%). The UK, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden remain the largest donors in absolute terms. Belgium, Ireland, Spain and Sweden reported lower levels of funding, with some of these decreases being expected, due to a change of approach to funding SRH/FP in 2019.
European donors also continue being vocal about SRH/FP at the policy level. Eight new policy and strategy documents from European governments and EU institutions are testament to this. In addition to political pledges in several international fora, European governments also reinstated the importance of SRH/FP in official responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and in humanitarian aid.
Check out the full report.
The data can also be further explored on the new online data dashboard here.
For individual country profiles, providing country-specific context, policies and funding information for each of the 12 countries and the European Institutions, please visit: www.countdown2030europe.org/country-profiles
Check out our brief in Spanish here.
Photo: Alejandro Ortiz for IPPF x Fine Acts
