Over the past five years, Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) has pioneered a country-led, globally-backed development partnership that will help us reach millions of women and girls with the services and information they need to control if, when, and how often they have children.

FP2020: The Way Ahead – the fifth of FP2020’s annual progress reports since its inception – is the story of our partnership, a partnership that is growing, vibrant, and unique. FP2020 is a country-led movement to empower women and girls by investing in rights-based family planning. That’s revolutionary. It’s what we’ve built together over these last five years – and it’s what’s going to take us into the future.

The past year has been full of highs and lows, but what has come through so clearly is the strength and resilience of this partnership. Durability and flexibility are built into this initiative from the ground up, ensuring that we can weather external changes and adapt to new situations.

FP2020 brings country and global partners together in an unprecedented and incredibly powerful way.

And by FP2020, I mean all of us. The governments, the donors, the implementing partners, the advocates, the youth leaders – all of us. We are all FP2020. We are all in this together, all working to realize our shared vision of the future. That’s why this year’s report includes voices from throughout the partnership. In the report, you’ll hear from some of the many government ministers, technical experts, and civil society leaders who are part of the FP2020 movement.

In July, many of these partners and other members of the FP2020 community gathered in London for the 2017 Family Planning Summit. The Summit was a tremendous high point for all of us: a global moment of solidarity, celebration, and renewal. Together, we took stock of how far we’ve come since 2012:

– Countries are setting the pace of progress, leading the way with commitments that are more detailed, targeted, actionable, and measurable than ever before.

– FP2020 partners are poised to deploy next-generation solutions in strengthening supply chains, financing, data collection, and contraceptive technology.

– Adolescents and youth are now front and center on the agenda, with dozens of commitments prioritizing their needs. Young people are also leading the agenda: participating in high-level forums, conducting new research, and engaging in advocacy efforts with decision makers.

– New initiatives from governments and donors are tightly targeted to fill gaps, shore up weak spots, and deliver more services to more women and girls, even in humanitarian settings.

– The 11 groundbreaking Global Goods announced at the Summit have the potential to catalyze progress across the entire family planning sector.

The Summit demonstrated clearly that this community and the FP2020 partnership is united, resilient, and ready to meet the future.

We’re also dedicating a portion of the report this year to explaining how the FP2020 partnership works. The platform we’ve built is resilient, inclusive, and effective. In the FP2020 approach, countries are in the driver’s seat. The development framework is aligned with country goals, and supports programs that are grounded in a rights-based approach, founded on evidence-based practices, underpinned by a robust measurement agenda, and accountable to stakeholders. South-South collaboration is also a vital element, and our regional workshops provide an essential forum for countries to engage with and learn from each other.

Collaboration across sectors and across institutions is another defining feature of the FP2020 platform. FP2020 provides space for governments and civil society to connect, for experts to share their knowledge, for donors to align their investments for maximum effectiveness, and for the global family planning community to take joint action on critical issues.

A partnership that is united can weather any storm. But we can do more than that: By working more closely together than ever, we can deliver on the revolutionary promise that is FP2020.

Explore the 2016-2017 progress report, FP2020: The Way Ahead.