New measurement tool provides clear evidence of the impact of family planning
Kampala – at the recent International Family Planning Conference 2009 in Uganda, Marie Stopes International (MSI) launched a new measurement tool which will enable government health departments, hospitals, NGOs and other agencies to accurately calculate the effect of family planning programmes on the wider health, economic, environmental and societal aspects on the communities and countries in which they work.
The Impact Calculator integrates several validated and commonly used models and formulae into a single, user friendly application which allows any organisation to calculate the impact of its own family planning services on a community, national, regional or global level.
Using the tool, it is possible to calculate demographic and health impacts such as the number of pregnancies and abortions averted; the number of maternal, infant and under-5 deaths prevented; economic impacts such as the total savings made to household, community and health systems’ budgets; and environmental impacts, such as the ecological footprints averted (the sum of land and sea required to provide food and resources consumed by each person, to provide space for infrastructure and to absorb waste).
Using the Impact Calculator to calculate the effect of MSI’s own programmes in 43 countries worldwide, Michael Holscher, MSI’s Director of External Relations & Strategy revealed that, to date in 2009 MSI’s family planning services have:
• prevented almost seven million unplanned pregnancies
• averted more than two million abortions
• saved household, community and health system budgets over US$1 billion
• prevented over four million ecological footprints.
“When the Impact Calculator becomes available to third party agencies in 2010,” said Holscher, “it will enable anyone working in the field of sexual and reproductive health to demonstrate persuasively to governments and donors how an investment in family planning programmes can have a transformative effect at every level of society – from saving lives and improving the living conditions of families and whole communities to improving national health outcomes and contributing to economic and ecological sustainability.”
The Impact Calculator will become available to third party agencies in the New Year.