Today the Guttmacher Institute unveiled findings from two groundbreaking research initiatives revealing the most comprehensive evidence to date of the transformative impact of family planning on women’s lives—underscoring the urgent need for sustained investment in global sexual and reproductive health. The new evidence has been released at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), which kicked off today in Bogotá, Colombia.
The two complementary studies—Adding It Up and FP-Impact—demonstrate that investing in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care delivers immediate, life-saving benefits while simultaneously functioning as economic “seed funding” that expands national workforces and generates sustained economic returns.
Key Findings
The Adding It Up report, which examines data on sexual and reproductive health services in 128 low- and middle-income countries, reveals an urgent need for action:
- 928 million women in low- and middle-income countries want to avoid pregnancy
- 214 million women are not using modern contraception; among those, 78 million women intend to use or would be open to using contraception in the future, representing the most strategic investment target
The report finds that the investment required to meet this need is significant but achievable:
- $104 billion annually to meet all sexual and reproductive health needs in low- and middle-income countries (just $15.56 per capita per year)—a $54 billion annual increase from current spending
- To close the contraceptive gap alone: $14 billion needed annually
- The return on investment is also significant: Every additional $1 spent on contraceptive services saves $2.48 in maternal, newborn and abortion care costs.
Full investment achieves a range of outcomes:
- All women receive pregnancy, STI and contraceptive care to decide whether and when to have children
- All newborns and their mothers receive essential care
- Unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortion and maternal deaths decline.
The report notes that—despite persistent unmet contraceptive need—investments in contraceptive care are declining, and without immediate resource mobilization, the funding gap will continue to widen.
“At this moment, when the funding environment for sexual and reproductive health is so precarious, funders and policymakers need to know where they will get the greatest return on investment,” said Elizabeth Sully, Director of International Research at the Guttmacher Institute. “Adding It Up provides that evidence. In a constrained resource environment, our data help guide smart and strategic investments and give advocates real numbers to push governments to invest in sexual and reproductive health.”
FP-Impact, a groundbreaking research collaboration across multidisciplinary research teams in the United States, Europe and West Africa, developed new scientific approaches that yielded innovative models showing the connection between family planning use and socioeconomic outcomes:
- In Kenya and Nigeria, women’s use of contraception led to a 10–12% increase in doing paid work the following year and a nearly 15% increase in control over use of wages.
- In Burkina Faso, Kenya and Niger, longer duration of contraceptive use was associated with women experiencing more years of paid employment with control over use of their earnings.
“With FP-Impact, we now have scientific evidence showing what so many women know to be true: Family planning doesn’t just save lives, it transforms women’s economic prospects and strengthens entire economies,” said Onikepe Owolabi, Vice President for International Research at the Guttmacher Institute. “Our FP-Impact research demonstrates that investments in family planning function like seed funding, generating sustained economic returns through increases in women’s workforce participation.”
As part of the FP-Impact collaboration, Avenir Health created a tool to help policymakers, advocates and program implementers understand the evidence and pathways by which contraceptive use can drive economic empowerment.
Together, Adding It Up and FP-Impact demonstrate that funding family planning is more than an effective health intervention—it is a development strategy that expands women’s autonomy and opportunities while building stronger, more productive economies.
About the Research
Adding It Up examines the need for, impact of and costs of investing in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, covering essential services that ensure people can decide whether and when to have children, experience safe pregnancy and delivery, and have healthy newborns.
The FP-Impact Consortium brought together independent research teams—in collaboration with a multinational, multidisciplinary advisory group—that used existing data from Sub-Saharan African countries to produce statistical models that quantify family planning’s economic benefits.
Media Availability
Onikepe Owolabi, Guttmacher’s Vice President for International Research, and Elizabeth Sully, Director of International Research, will be available for interviews at ICFP. A media roundtable will take place at 2pm on November 4 at the media center, Ágora Bogotá. To schedule interviews or for more information, contact Kirsten Sherk ([email protected]) or Julia Loewenberg ([email protected]).
About the Guttmacher Institute
The Guttmacher Institute is a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide.