Why family planning is a wise investment

Political crises, scandals and malfunction continue to dominate the global news agenda. Surprisingly, for this reason many people lost the United Kingdom announcement last month that it would spend 600 million pounds (779 million dollars) to provide 20 million women and girls in the developing world with access to family planning.

But the U.K. government's decision based on research by the Copenhagen Consensus Centre that shows family planning is one of the smartest possible development investments. Currently, hundreds of millions of women are unable to choose the number, time, and space of their children with fatal consequences at times because unwanted pregnancies can take the lives of young mothers and babies. Moreover, because universal access to contraceptions promotes growth, there are powerful economic arguments to make it a top priority.

In developing countries, 214 million reproductive women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using a modern contraception method. Nearly a quarter of women in Africa and one in ten in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have an unfulfilled need for family planning.

Four years ago, world leaders pledged to achieve universal access to family planning services by 2030. However, in 2017, the last year for which data is available, global funding for such services was about $1.27 billion long below the $1.43 billion stake in 2014. Clearly, many other governments must follow the example of the United Kingdom.

Some family planning programs are not chronically financed. US President Donald Trump's administration, like its last republican predecessors, has abandoned many such initiatives because it does not want to use American taxpayers' money to finance abortions (however, general spending on US development has remained stable.) But administration policy Trump may not achieve its intended goal: according to a Stanford University study, a similar law under the leadership of then-President George W. Bush brought in more abortions because he reduced funds for NGOs offering contraception.

The study of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre used by the United Kingdom government shows why we should strive for universal access to modern family planning. In the study, Hans-Peter Kohler and Jere Behrman of Pennsylvania University estimate that providing family planning services for those 214 million women who have no access would cost $3.6 billion annually.

Pregnant and close births in time and with health problems contribute to high levels of infant mortality, while evidence suggests that women with more than four children face a major mortality risk. Kohler and Behmmann estimate that achieving universal access to family planning will bring 640,000 fewer newborn babies' deaths annually, 150,000 fewer mothers' deaths, and 600,000 less children losing their mothers. By converting these health benefits into economic terms, Koehler and Behrman find that every dollar spent on improving access to contraceptive methods generates goods worth 40 dollars for society.

That's very impressive. But, poorer countries with greater access to contraceptive methods also benefit from a “divident demographic” especially, accelerated economic growth that may result from an increase in the ratio of working age to addicts.

In less developed countries, more than 40 percent of the population is usually under the age of 15 and depends on adults working for financial assistance. But when women can choose when and how often they get pregnant, they are more likely to have fewer children and are better able to reach the desired size of the family. When birth levels fall, the number of dependents decrease compared with the working - age population. With fewer people to support themselves financially, and as a result, more people working age have an open prospect of rapid economic growth.

Moreover, having smaller families allows parents to invest more for each child. Children with fewer brothers or sisters tend to stay longer at school, for example. And with fewer children in each time group, each child will also be able to use society's capital more, making them more productive.

In all, these demographic benefits amount to $28 billion a year, according to Kohler and Behrman. When we add this demographic division to health benefits, each dollar spent to improve access to family planning brings $120 to social benefits.

This represents an absolutely phenomenal investment. In fact, a panel of economic experts gathered by the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, including two Nobel laureates, concluded that universal access to family planning together with cheaper trade, better food, immunisation and investments in pre-school education is one of the most powerful development goals the world can pursue.

It is now the duty of governments and other donors who pursue the financial commitment of the United Kingdom to make family planning more widely present. Reaching a universal approach to family planning would save and improve millions of lives and put societies on a faster path to shared prosperity. With so much in question, the world must pay much more attention and resources to that purpose. /Buriment: Project Syndicate/In Albanian by: BIRN/