Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1696597059086.pdf (United States)
FAMILY PLANNING AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROGRAM OVERVIEW The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is committed to helping countries meet the family planning and reproductive health needs of their people.

Voluntarism and informed choice are guiding principles of our program.

We are the world’s largest bilateral donor of family planning assistance; the Agency’s bilateral family planning and reproductive health program budget for FY 2019 was $607.5 million.
When USAID launched its family planning program in 1965, fewer than 10 percent of women in the developing world (excluding China) were using a modern contraceptive method, and the average family size was over six.

Today, in the 31 countries where USAID focuses its support, modern contraceptive prevalence has increased to 32 percent, and the average family size has dropped to 4.3.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that in FY 2019, the U.S. international family planning assistance budget translated into reaching 24.3 million women and couples with contraceptive services and supplies, helping to prevent 14,700 maternal deaths and 7.2 million unintended pregnancies.

The Challenge When a woman bears children too close together, too early, or too late in life, her own health and her baby’s health are at risk.
Expanding access to voluntary family planning is vital to safe motherhood, healthy families, and prosperous communities.

Yet, more than 214 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using a modern method of contraception.
The Opportunity Each year, greater access to family planning has the potential to: • Prevent up to 30 percent of the more than 287,000 maternal deaths that occur • Save the lives of 1.4 million children under the age of five in our priority countries Program Goals As a core partner in Family Planning 2020, USAID is working with the global community to reach an additional 120 million women and girls with family planning information, commodities, and services by 2020.
USAID’s family planning program also makes substantial contributions to the Agency-wide goals of Controlling the AIDS Epidemic and Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths.
The Benefits of Family Planning Protects women’s and children’s health by reducing high-risk pregnancies and allowing sufficient time between pregnancies Advances individuals’ rights to decide their own family size Improves women’s opportunities for education, employment, and full participation in society Reduces poverty by contributing to economic growth at the family, community, and national levels Decreases abortion Mitigates the impact of population dynamics on natural resources and state stability Reduces HIV and AIDS through the prevention of new HIV infections and mother-to-child transmission via increased access to voluntary family planning information, services and commodities, including condoms Of the program’s 24 priority countries, 23 are also priorities for Maternal and Child Health programs.
Our Approach USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health has played a critical role in this progress in USAID-assisted countries through field-driven program design, comprehensive technical support, timely and authoritative research, global leadership and high-impact partnerships.
The Office supports all the key components of effective family planning and reproductive health programs: service delivery, performance improvement, contraceptive supply and logistics, health communication, biomedical and social science research, policy analysis and planning and monitoring and evaluation.

Our reproductive health portfolio includes integration with maternal and child health and HIV programming, gender-based violence and addressing gender norms.
In addition, the Office puts special emphasis on program approaches and issues that are under-resourced in country programs but hold promise for accelerating progress.

Where We Work USAID advances and supports voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs in nearly 40 countries across the globe.

We focus our family planning and reproductive health work in 24 high-priority countries and the Francophone West Africa region, where the need for family planning is greatest.
Of the program’s 24 priority countries, 23 are also priorities for Maternal and Child Health programs, maximizing opportunities for integration and synergy.

Since the inception of the USAID family planning program in 1965, 24 countries have “graduated” from USAID assistance – having reached high levels of modern contraception use (between 51 percent and 70 percent) and low levels of fertility (between 2.3 and 3.1 children per woman).
USAID’s Population and Reproductive Health Priority Countries Haiti Legislative and Policy Requirements USAID’s family planning program is guided by principles of voluntarism and informed choice and the restrictions on abortion that are articulated in legislative and policy requirements and program guidance.

USAID takes these requirements very seriously and works with partners to ensure compliance in their programs.
USAID successfully programmed family planning and reproductive health assistance under the Mexico City Policy requirements from 1984-93 and 2001-09 and is currently programming under the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy.

Notable Contributions • In the past ten years, USAID’s maternal and child survival efforts, which include family planning and reproductive health, have helped save the lives of more than 5 million children and 200,000 women in 25 priority countries.
In 2017 alone, USAID helped 76 million women and children access essential - and often life saving - health services.

• USAID pioneered the world’s largest survey research effort, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program.

The Agency provides technical assistance to implement over 300 household and facility-based surveys across Africa, Asia, Latin America/ Caribbean and Easten Europe.

• USAID was involved in developing nearly every modern contraceptive method available today.
These investments have benefited women abroad as well as women here in the US.

• USAID works closely with other donors and contraceptive manufacturers to increase access to voluntary family planning and leverage funding.

This collaboration has resulted in lowered prices of both injectable contraceptives and contraceptive implants, the latter by 50 percent.
Commodities Donated in Fiscal Year 2018 28 million male condoms 22.7 million injectables 16.8 million oral pills 205,400 IUDs 2.6 million implants 350,500 CycleBeads June 2019