The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo established that family planning should be considered a core part of reproductive health care and that women have the right to decide whether, when, and how many children to have. Yet for almost 2 decades post-Cairo, family planning's visibility receded and remained in the shadows of other global health issues, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.1,2 The field, however, quietly persisted, developing new contraceptive formulations, testing approaches to expand service delivery, broadening stakeholder interest, and engaging with private-sector networks. Family planning's reemergence was assisted with the start of the series of International Conferences on Family Planning (ICFP), the first of which took place in 2009, organized by Johns Hopkins University's Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health and the host country government of Uganda. ICFP 2009 drew in more than 1,200 attendees, when only 300 were anticipated. The momentum of interest in family planning continued with ICFP 2011 in Senegal, attended by more than 2,200 professionals.
As the world's largest scientific and programmatic conference dedicated to family planning, ICFP brings together researchers, policy makers, ministers, advocates, practitioners, media, and youth to share knowledge and best practices. The conference takes place every 2 years, and …