Publications

To achieve the SDG 2030 milestone—“universal access” to voluntary, high-quality family planning (FP) services—international FP funders and advocates seek to increase and sustain FP financing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

The global effort to control the COVID-19 pandemic has seen an exceptional allocation of public and philanthropic funds to advance the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines as quickly as possible. While critical, even these significant commitments represent only a “down payment” on a price tag that could eventually exceed $50 billion just to scale the production of vaccines to control this global pandemic—amounts that cannot be raised through traditional donor and philanthropic commitments.

Over the past two decades, global health innovation has delivered important new tools for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and saved many lives. Nonetheless, the current innovation ecosystem suffers from significant limitations that are likely to worsen with aid transition.

There have been impressive gains in global health over the past 20 years, with millions of lives saved through expanded access to essential medicines and other health products. But behind these successes is an unacceptable reality: in many low- and middle-income countries, lifesaving health products are either unavailable or beyond the reach of the people who need them most.

Gavi’s mission—saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines—remains highly relevant. Gavi 5.0 needs a new model to deliver on its laudable mission. This overview note lays out five challenges and summarizes some of our ideas to address them; backing up each is a standalone note that provides greater detail and options for action.

Next week, Women Deliver—the world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and wellbeing of women and girls—will kick off. This note highlights three issues for the global FP movement post-2020. We review the underlying critical assumptions in FP2020’s initial design along with their strengths and weaknesses, and place future approaches squarely within the context of today’s evolving landscape—one that looks very different than the year 2012, when FP2020 was launched.

The World Health Organization routinely develops and issues guidelines on how best to prevent, diagnose, and treat particular medical conditions. The guidelines are developed through a process determined by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee—a key part of which involves systematic evidence appraisal using the GRADE approach.

Researchers from many academic institutions and think tanks have studied the relationship between contraception and women's economic empowerment. In both the developing and developed world, the evidence suggests that access to contraception is not only correlated with but can even cause women’s economic empowerment and drive economic growth.