Research Briefs

Family Planning (FP) has immense health, environmental, and economic growth benefits. For instance, it is estimated that in 2008, family planning averted 32% of maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and that such deaths would decline by a further 29% if all women who want to avoid pregnancy use an effective contraceptive method (Ahmed et al. 2012). Family planning also helps save the lives of children; spacing births of children by at least two years would reduce deaths of infants by 10% and deaths of children aged 1-5 years by about 20% (Cleland et al. 2012).