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What We Do

FAMILY PLANNING
S T R AT E G Y O V E R V I E W

Family planning is a key part of the foundation's broader commitment to empowering women and improving
family health.

OUR GOAL: to bring access to high-quality contraceptive information, services, and

supplies to an additional 120 million women and girls in the poorest countries by 2020
without coercion or discrimination, with the longer-term goal of universal access to
voluntary family planning.

The Challenge

Voluntary family planning is one of the great public In This Page

health advances of the past century. Enabling women to THE CHALLENGE
make informed decisions about whether and when to THE OPPORTUNITY
have children reduces unintended pregnancies as well as OUR STRATEGY
maternal and newborn deaths. It also increases AREAS OF FOCUS
educational and economic opportunities for women and
leads to healthier families and communities. Family
planning is a smart, sensible, and vital component of AT A G L A N C E
global health and development.
Access to family planning
However, more than 220 million women in developing information and contraceptives can

countries who don’t want to get pregnant lack access to change lives. Every woman and girl
deserves the chance to determine
contraceptives and voluntary family planning
her own future. Read women’s
information and services. Less than 20 percent of women
stories
in Sub-Saharan Africa and barely one-third of women in
South Asia use modern contraceptives. In 2012, an
estimated 80 million women in developing countries had More than 220 million women in

an unintended pregnancy; of those women, at least one in developing countries who don’t
want to get pregnant lack access to
four resorted to an unsafe abortion.
Significant challenges stand in the way of making contraceptives and voluntary family

contraceptives more widely available and accessible, planning information and services.

including insufficient donor and developing country

funding, lack of appropriate products that meet users’ Rates of contraceptive use in some
needs, weak distribution systems, lack of reliable of the poorest countries have
monitoring and data collection mechanisms, and cultural stalled, with less than 20 percent of
and knowledge barriers. women in Sub-Saharan Africa and
barely one-third of women in South
Asia using modern contraceptives.

Increasing access to contraceptives

and family planning information and
services will result in fewer women
and girls dying in pregnancy and
childbirth, fewer unintended
pregnancies, fewer abortions, and
fewer infant deaths.

We work to increase funding and

improve policies for family planning,
expand the demand for and use of
contraceptives, develop innovative
contraceptive technologies, and
build evidence to improve service
delivery.

The Opportunity

Voluntary family planning is one of the most cost-effective investments a country can make in its
future. Every dollar spent on family planning can save governments up to 6 dollars that can be
spent on improving health, housing, water, sanitation, and other public services.

In 2012, the landmark London Summit on

Family Planning mobilized governments,
international agencies, civil society
organizations, foundations, and the private
sector to commit to dramatically expanding
access to voluntary family planning. The
resulting global partnership, called Family
Planning 2020 (FP2020), has created global
momentum on the issue of access to
contraceptives and has spurred A mother and son at a health center in Dakar, Senegal.
collaboration, innovation, and greater
accountability in family planning efforts.

Our Strategy
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Family Planning program is working to bring access to
high-quality contraceptive information, services, and supplies to an additional 120 million
women and girls in the poorest countries by 2020 without coercion or discrimination, with the
longer-term goal of universal access to voluntary family planning.

With our partners, we support national governments that have committed to the goals of FP2020
and are leading the development and implementation of their own country-specific plans.

Foundation support includes assessing family planning needs, particularly among the poorest
and most vulnerable populations; identifying access barriers and funding gaps; developing and
testing interventions; sharing evidence-based practices; promoting accountability through real-
time performance monitoring and data collection; and fostering coordination among
governments, partners, and donors.

We also work to increase funding and improve policies for family planning, create public-private
partnerships to expand contraceptive access and options, develop innovative and affordable
contraceptive technologies, and support further research to close knowledge gaps.

We are particularly committed to exploring how our family planning efforts can meet the needs
of young women and girls.

Areas of Focus

Accelerate Country Action

We work with countries that are committed to expanding access to high-quality, voluntary
family planning to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. Our deepest engagements are in
India and Nigeria. We also work with public and private partners and make selected
investments in Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. 

In francophone West Africa, we are core members of the Ouagadougou Partnership for
Family Planning, and support Senegal and Niger to implement supply and demand
approaches that can inform practice across countries in that region.

Strengthen Policy and Advocacy

We work to keep family planning on the global agenda and to hold donors and developing
countries accountable for their commitments to support family planning. Our work in this
area includes grantmaking, direct advocacy, communications counsel and support, and
engagement with leaders.

Monitor Performance and Promote Accountability

To monitor changes in contraceptive use and help all FP2020 countries track annual
progress toward their goals and improve program performance, we are investing in rapid
surveys that will provide data on family planning use in 6- and 12-month intervals,
supplementing country-wide health surveys that provide data only every 3 to 5 years.

We are also leading the effort to harmonize the

way various organizations track family
planning resources. The new data systems will
use standard metrics and provide reliable data
at the national and sub-national levels. Better
data and monitoring are crucial to holding
donors, governments, programs, and providers
accountable.

Closing Knowledge Gaps

A mother and newborn in Uttar Pradesh, India

Better service delivery is critical to expanding

access to and use of contraceptives, particularly
in the poorest countries with the weakest health service infrastructure. We build evidence
about what works to address supply and demand barriers on a large scale and in multiple
countries, promote collaboration between the public and private sectors on delivery
solutions, and synthesize and communicate research findings to donors, countries, and
partners.

Invest in New Contraceptive Methods

Some women do not access or use contraceptives for a variety of reasons, even when they
want to avoid pregnancy. They may have misconceptions about their risk of becoming
pregnant, or be deterred by the cost, inconvenience, or concerns about side effects. In some
cases, opposition from family members or a limited range of available methods can be a key
factor in non use. 

Continued innovation in contraceptive technology is

needed to address these barriers and meet the
demands of women in different circumstances and at
different stages of their lives. We support the
discovery, development, and distribution of new
technologies that address reasons for non-use, with a
focus on improving acceptance and continued use
among priority user groups: women who have
achieved their desired family size, women who are
not using an existing methods due to side effects, and Less than 20 percent of women in Sub-
young women.  These long-term investments will Saharan Africa and barely one-third of
i S th A i d
address contraceptive needs far beyond 2020 and will also include collaboration with the
foundation’s HIV program to develop new technologies that prevent both pregnancy and
HIV acquisition.
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