Expanding Equity Measurements of Family Planning Beyond Wealth Status and Contraceptive Use

To achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health services requires greater focus and investment, to understand and address the barriers that millions of women and girls currently at risk of an unwanted pregnancy face in accessing and using voluntary family planning. Reaching those not well served by current programmes is a persistent challenge. A review by the partnership on High Impact Practices in Family Planning of eight studies revealed variations in how equity is defined, with most addressing economic barriers to contraceptive use. Drawing on these findings, we propose a more comprehensive approach for examining and addressing inequities in family planning. We aim to challenge researchers and advocates to expand their vision of equity towards a more inclusive and insightful analysis; to encourage managers and evaluators to incorporate a more nuanced approach in defining and evaluating success; and to support implementers in thinking more creatively about the root causes of inequity and programme responses, rather than to set out indicators or provide programmatic guidance in their use. We recommend expanding how inequities are characterized and how they are measured and evaluated to go beyond wealth as the sole driver of inequity and contraceptive use as the primary outcome.

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