Family planning is central to global development according to new evidence in the Lancet

Increasing access to family planning will play a central role in achieving UN targets for maternal health, eradication of poverty, education, and gender equality, according to a major new Series on Family Planning published today by The Lancet.

The Series presents critical evidence that family planning needs to play a central role in global development, and appears ahead of a major meeting – the London Summit on Family Planning – hosted by the UK Government and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday, July 11, 2012.  The Summit will bring together participants from across the world to mobilise global action supporting the rights of 120 million additional women and girls to access family planning without coercion or discrimination.

Presenting the latest thinking underpinning these deliberations, the new Lancet Series shows how lack of access to family planning carries a huge price, not just in terms of women’s and children’s health and survival but also in economic and environmental terms.  Revealing startling new research findings on the effect that wider contraceptive use could have on maternal mortality rates, the Series also covers:

• Global population trends and policy options
• Contraception and health
• The connection between demographic change and climate change
• The economic dividends of family planning
• How human rights can be deployed to satisfy unmet needs for family planning

In addition to these Series papers, leading figures from across the field of family planning – including the Prime Ministers of Rwanda and Ethiopia, Melinda Gates and Series leader Professor Herbert Peterson – provide incisive Comments on the latest issues in this area.