Dressed in traditional attires, Fatima and Zubairu Muwesi, a young couple, made their historic appearance at the largest international conference on family planning (FP) with a testimony. With unimaginable confidence, they told the audience their heart-wrenching story. They have had six children in 10 years; the youngest is about 18 months old. Recently the couple made a joint decision to delay further childbearing until they were more financially secured. Their story told via an interpreter was heart-warming and received a thunderous applause from the audience.

Mrs. Muwesi, 24, in an emotion-laden voice said she had no idea of what family planning was all about until she came in contact with Profam clinic, and was giving advice on contraception. "I used to produce year after year. I needed a break. I wish the access to contraception had been as easy as salt or paraffin," she said in between smiles. That has been the fate of thousands of other women all over the world, who do not have access to family planning. In her own case, she was lucky to have come in contact with Profam clinic that offered her all the necessary information and contraception she needed to change her life for better.

Mr. Muwesi, like most other men, who do not raise a finger to assist their wives during pregnancy, told the audience that he thought FP was only for women. "I told my wife that family planning was a woman's issue." But after he was educated on the importance of family planning, Mr. Muwesi had a change of heart, and now believes that couples should plan their families together. "I know now that family planning is for men and women," he said. He is right. The benefits of Family planning cannot be under-estimated. It is, among other things, key in development, and, above all, in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5.

The Muwesis' testimony was part of the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Family Planning, which took place in Kampala, Uganda between November 15 and 18, 2009. The Conference was organized by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States of America, and Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda. The audience, numbering over 1,000 was made up of leading policy-makers, researchers, academics and health professionals from 59 countries.

Fatima's experience represents those of estimated 200 million women all over the world who seek to prevent or delay pregnancy, but are not using effective contraception. It is either they have no access to it, they think they will not get pregnant, they fear side effects or their families object to using any family planning methods. The outcomes of this are thousands of unintended pregnancies, ill health and maternal deaths.

The United Nations estimates that by 2050 contraceptive demand would grow by 40 per cent as record numbers of young people enter the prime reproductive ages. The tragedy of the situation is that the concept of family planning is surrounded by myths and misconceptions, which have been variously been debunked by health experts. According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), access to contraceptives empowers women and can save lives. "Contraception can prevent 2.7 million infant deaths a year. It can reduce poverty, slow population growth, ease the pressure on the environment and make for a more stable world," world body says.

Another setback is that in spite several conferences, researches and experiences with successful family planning programmes, global attention to this health intervention has dramatically declined in the past 15 years, according to health experts. This has resulted in less government support and funding for family planning programmes, risking couples' ability to time and space their births to their families' benefit.

At the recently concluded conference on the theme: International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best practices, which held at the Speke Resort Limited, in Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda, experts drawn from all walks of life, examined and reaffirmed the importance of family planning in the context of human development and re-committed to the vision and realization of universal access to family planning. It was also agreed that if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) must be met, the international community must restore family planning to the top of the development agenda.

The opening ceremony was spiced by the organizers showing a video message featuring American billionaire, Bill Gates Jnr, advising people to practice family programme because it can contribute to the reduction of both maternal and infant deaths. He also pledged to continue to support FP programmes.

In her welcome address at the opening ceremony of the Conference, Prof. Amy Tsui, who was all smiles, welcomed participants to the largest international conference and described the conference as apt and timely.

Prof. Tsui who is the Director of Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, regretted the decline in attention giving to family planning over the last decade, but expressed hope that the conference would usher in a new era of focus on this critical issue. In an emotion-laden voice, she said: "Welcome back to family planning," to the delight of the audience.

The First Lady of Uganda, Mrs. Janet Museveni, in her keynote address attributed the high rate of maternal mortality in Africa to inadequate health systems and poverty and urged African leaders to invest in maternal, child and family health as such gestures would yield high returns on investment for the continent in future.

Mrs. Museveni who said the situation of maternal health and child survival in Africa was a cause of concern called for zero-tolerance of maternal deaths.

She said in sub-Saharan Africa, a woman's risk of dying from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and child birth over the course of her life time was high compared to her counterpart in developed countries. "The tragedy of maternal death does not just end at the loss of the mother. The children left behind experience untold sufferings. Every year, more than one million children are left motherless and vulnerable because of maternal death. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die before age five than those who have not," Mrs. Museveni said.

Continuing the First Lady said: "For every woman who dies in pregnancy and child birth, six others survive, but with chronic debilitating injuries and chronic ill-health. Among such injuries is obstetric fistula, which is a very de-humanizing condition. I am referring to this particular condition because I know how it affects our women, especially the very young ones."

She regretted the fact that the causes of death among women and children are well known and are largely preventable; adding that with low-cost or relatively cheap cost-effective technologies such lives could have been saved. Recalling the various commitments by various governments she, therefore, charged them to re-commit themselves to the cause of saving womanhood and, indeed, humanity. "We, therefore, have a solemn responsibility to ensure that women do not continue to die from preventable conditions whose remedies are available to us. We cannot just sit back and watch as our women continue to die so needlessly in pregnancy and child birth. That is the challenge we have today. No woman should die while giving life," she said.

She highlighted four actions that are effective in reducing maternal death.