The Pandemic Imperils Family Planning Progress

60 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries gained access to modern family planning methods in the FP2020 partnership’s 8-year run—but the pandemic imperils that progress, The Guardian reports.

320 million women and girls now use modern contraception in 69 focus countries, reveals the FP2020’s final progress report, published today. 

• Modern contraceptive users doubled in 13 countries—including Burkina Faso, Chad, DRC, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Somalia, since the effort launched in 2012—and grew 66% across Africa.


• More than 121 million unintended pregnancies, 21 million unsafe abortions, and 125,000 maternal deaths were prevented in 2020 alone.

However, the pandemic has “unleashed a host of corollary effects: a global increase in gender-based violence and child marriage, a global drop in women’s workforce participation and girls’ school enrollment, and a global economic recession,” threatening family planning efforts for years.

Still, the number of women seeking modern contraceptives continues to climb—by ~15 million per year in the focus countries. Reaching them will drive the new partnership, which updates its name today: FP2030.