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20 Essentials Reading Time: 2 minutes

Introducing 20 Essential Resources on Family Planning Policy Environments

A new collection in partnership with PRB


PRB’s Empowering Evidence-Driven Advocacy project and Policy, Advocacy, and Communication Enhanced for Population and Reproductive Health project are glad to partner with Knowledge SUCCESS to bring you this curated collection of resources highlighting different facets of family planning policy environments.

Why we created this collection

Family planning policy environments influence contraceptive demand, availability, access, and use. They shape options and opportunities for the nearly two billion women and girls of reproductive age around the world.

PRB promotes and supports evidence-based policies, practices, and decision-making to improve the health and well-being of people throughout the world. Equitable access to quality, voluntary family planning can transform the lives of women, families, and the development of nations.

The policy environment within which all family planning programming, either private or public, occurs is complex and multifaceted. Enabling aspects of a policy environment can support access to and use of family planning. Restrictive aspects inhibit access to and use of family planning for certain groups of people or in certain situations.

By gathering and disseminating evidence-based, actionable information, like the resources included in this 20 Essentials collection, we can help to ensure that more women and families are supported by policy environments that enable their access to and use of family planning.

How we chose the resources

EEDA, PACE, and Knowledge SUCCESS used simple selection criteria to collaboratively create this collection of resources. To be included in this collection, a resource had to be:

  1. Produced or updated within the last five years.
  2. Relevant for more than one country.
  3. Evidence-based (backed by research).
20 Essential Resources FP Policy Environments

What is included in this collection?

This collection of essential resources is for family planning program planners, implementers, decision-makers, and advocates who work within and seek to understand and influence family planning policy environments. The collection provides tools to measure and/or assess policy environments, approaches that explain how to influence family planning policy environments, and resources to enable better understanding of key policy topics.

Resources are grouped into four categories:

  • Measurement and Assessment Tools
  • Influencing Policy Environments
  • Policy Environment Overviews
  • Policy Resources on Key Topics

Each entry includes a short summary describing the resource and a statement on why we consider the resource to be essential. Enjoy the collection and let us know what you think.

Shelley Megquier

Program Director , Population Reference Bureau

Shelley Megquier is a program director in PRB’s International Programs and manages the Empowering Evidence-Driven Advocacy project. Megquier leads strategic communication, capacity development, and policy advocacy activities in close collaboration with partners in countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa. She joined PRB in 2014 with a rich background in gender and development work, including experience working in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Peru, Thailand, and the United States. Megquier holds a master’s degree in sustainable international development from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in global studies from Saint Lawrence University.

Kaitlyn Patierno

Program Director , Population Reference Bureau

Kaitlyn Patierno is program director in International Programs and the deputy director for the PACE Project. She specializes in family planning policy, program, and advocacy initiatives and links with multisectoral development. Prior to joining PRB, Patierno was a technical specialist at the United States Agency for International Development, where she supported family planning and health systems strengthening programs in the Africa Region. She holds a Master of Public Health in maternal and child health from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from The George Washington University.