Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia (SH&FPA) is a specialist health agency working to improve the sexual and reproductive health of Australians. It also runs an International Program, which makes Australian expertise available to developing countries in South East Asia and the Pacific. Family Planning NSW manages SH&FPA's International Projects, which focus on improving the reproductive and sexual health of communities in the Asia Pacific region. Funding for these projects is received from AusAID, the Asia Pacific Alliance and private donors.

SH&FPAs International Program promotes at national and international levels the objectives of family planning organisations to enable people to achieve reproductive and sexual health and well-being in the context of a sustainable environment.

We ascribe to and endorse the International Planned Parenthood Federation Charter on Sexual and Reproductive Rights. This rights-based approach is consistent with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action, developed in Cairo in 1994. At the heart of the Program of Action is the recognition that population policies that promote personal choice and human rights, and which are integrated with broader development goals such as poverty alleviation and gender equity, are effective both in improving quality of life and stabilising population levels.

In November 2011, SH&FPA in association with FPNSW, hosted the ‘Family Planning Pacific Forum’, with the goal of enhancing the achievement of and commitment to MDG5b in the Pacific region.  This forum brought together 47 key stakeholders in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) with broad representation from across the Pacific including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Timor Leste. Representatives from IPPF, UNFPA, AusAID, World Bank, Marie Stopes International, Burnet Institute also attended.

The Forum resulted in targeted recommendations including: a commitment to explore a model to enable future collaboration on SRHR issues in the Pacific; a proposal to jointly develop a ‘Call to Action’ paper on key MDG5b issues targeted at key decision makers and donors working across the Pacific; mapping  advocacy opportunities and development of action plans that target major Pacific based meetings and forums of decision makers; a call to support small Pacific-based Family Planning organisations with capacity building and mentoring to enable them to develop and implement advocacy initiatives at their national level.

Participants were able to strengthen and build upon existing relationships, as well as establish new linkages and networks. A stakeholder mapping of SRHR in the Pacific was also undertaken

following the Forum, to identity all of the MDG5b related projects and initiatives in the region.

For information about current international projects delivered by SH&FPA in the Asia-Pacific Region and managed under contract with Family Planning NSW (FPNSW) please visit: Family Planning NSW International Projects.