Family Planning

Family Planning Strategy   |   Guiding Principles and U.S. Legislative and Policy Requirements

Saving Lives, Protecting Health

USAID's Family Planning program is one of the success stories in U.S. development assistance. Since the launch of the program in 1965, families are better able to feed, clothe, educate, and provide health care for their children. Countless women and children are alive today as a result of USAID assistance.

Learn more about USAID's History of Achievements and Timeline in Family Planning.

Enabling couples to determine whether, when, and how often to have children is vital to safe motherhood and healthy families. Voluntary family planning has profound health, economic, and social benefits for families and communities:

• Protecting the health of women by reducing high-risk pregnancies
• Protecting the health of children by allowing sufficient time between pregnancies
• Fighting HIV/AIDS through providing information, counseling, and access to male and female condoms
• Reducing abortions
• Supporting women's rights and opportunities for education, employment, and full participation in society
• Protecting the environment by stabilizing population growth

USAID's Family Planning Strategy

• Exercises global leadership in policy, advocacy and services
• Generates, organizes and disseminates knowledge
• Provides support to the field for implementing effective programs

View USAID's Strategic Framework for Family Planning

New From Our Partners

MEASURE Evaluation has recently released the following publications: Contraceptive Discontinuation: A One-Year Follow-Up Study of Female Reversible Method Users in Urban Honduras - October 2008 [PDF, 275KB] Also available in Spanish [PDF, 363KB] Violence Against Women and Girls: A Compendium of Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators - October 2008 [PDF, 843KB] Impact of Oportunidades on Contraceptive Methods Use in Adolescent and Young Adult Women Living in Rural Areas, 1997-2000 - December 2008 [PDF, 469KB] 2006 Bangladesh Urban Health Survey, Volumes I and II - December 2008 Volume I [PDF, 4.1MB] Volume II [PDF, 2.3MB]

USAID's Family Planning Guiding Principles and U.S. Legislative and Policy Requirements

Principles of voluntarism and informed choice guide USAID's family planning program. These principles are articulated in program guidelines and a number of legislative and policy requirements that govern the use of U.S. family planning assistance. The requirements fall into two general categories:

• Voluntarism and Informed Choice
  USAID is committed to ensuring that women and couples in developing countries have access to voluntary family planning services and are free to make informed decisions about their reproductive lives.
  
  
• Restrictions on Support for Abortions
  There are several legislative and policy restrictions relating to abortions.

USAID takes these family planning requirements very seriously and works with Missions and partners to ensure compliance with the family planning requirements in their programs.

USAID's family planning program is subject to certain restrictions on the use of funds, which are implemented through standard provisions inserted in all grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts that include family planning activities. The current standard provisions for Voluntary Population Planning Activities, including both mandatory and supplemental requirements, for cooperative agreements and grants are available in the USAID Automated Directives System (ADS) Chapter 303. The current standard provisions that apply to contracts are found Acquisition & Assistance Policy Directive 08-01.

For Assistance Awards (Cooperative Agreements and Grants):

• Standard Provisions for U.S. NGO Recipients [PDF, 1.2MB]
• Standard Provisions for non-U.S. NGO Recipients [PDF, 1.3MB]

For Contracts:

• Acquisition & Assistance Policy Directive (AAPD 08-01) [PDF, 59KB]

For more information on Family Planning, please contact kocheltree@usaid.gov.