September 26, World Contraception Day
An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing but are not using any method of contraception. MEASURE Evaluation advances the goals of global family planning initiatives and the Sustainable Development Goals by supporting voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs.
Ensuring access to family planning for women and couples promotes the well-being and rights of women and the health of communities. Given access to family planning methods, families can invest more in each child, including being able to afford more years of school attendance than children with many siblings. It allows women to pursue further education and contribute to family livelihoods. And, family planning saves lives: ill-timed pregnancies and births contribute to higher maternal and infant mortality rates.
MEASURE Evaluation works to ensure optimal demand, analysis, and use of data to measure the performance of family planning programs and to inform family planning policies in developing countries. Our work includes maintaining the Family Planning and Reproductive Health Indicators Database to provide a compendium of the most widely used indicators for monitoring and evaluating family planning and reproductive health programs.
For additional information:
- The Effect of Access to Contraceptive Services on Injectable Use and Demand for Family Planning in Malawi
- Family Planning Needs of Adolescents in Predominantly Rural Communities in the Central Part of Ghana
- Improving Referrals and Integrating Family Planning and HIV Services through Organizational Network Strengthening
- The Future of Long-Acting and Permanent Methods of Contraception in Bangladesh: A Policy Brief
