10 Years After Introducing Mobile Clinics in Assuit, Egypt
This research paper examines patterns of contraceptive use among rural women in Assuit Governorate, in Egypt, and explores the underlying reasons that prevent women from visiting mobile clinics. The analysis was done by Ghada Salah-ElDeen T. Al-Attar, Assuit University, Egypt. This paper was published as part of PRB's MENA Working Paper Series (January 2009)

A Summary of the 'So What?' Report: Integrating a Gender Focus

 This is a summary of the longer IGWG "So What" report published in March 2004. The brief, produced through a collaboration between USAID's Interagency Gender Working Group and WHO's Department of Gender, Women and Health, presents the conclusions of the longer report, making it clear and accessible to policymakers and program managers. It presents the evidence that integrating gender into reproductive health programs makes a difference to outcomes, both reproductive health outcomes and gender outcomes. (July 2005)

Abortion in the Middle East and North Africa
Unsafe abortion is one of the most neglected public health challenges in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where an estimated one in four pregnancies are unintended—wanting to have a child later or wanting no more children. Many women with unintended pregnancies resort to clandestine abortions that are not safe. According to the World Health Organization, around 1.5 million abortions in MENA in 2003 were performed in unsanitary settings, by unskilled providers, or both. Complications from those abortions accounted for 11 percent of maternal deaths in the region. This PRB policy brief explores the public health concerns surrounding abortion in MENA and discusses ways to make it both rarer and safer. (September 2008)

Addressing Population in Poverty Reduction Strategies
Poverty reduction strategies form the basis of World Bank and International Monetary Fund assistance in the poorest developing countries. The detailed guidelines, "poverty reduction strategy papers," are prepared in the host country and influence the investments made in most sectors of development. But because family planning is receiving less attention and dedicated funding since the advent of PRSPs, those who support continued investments in family planning need to understand PRSPs and stay engaged in order to ensure that funding for family planning is sustained. (November 2007)

Building on Global Gains in Health, Education, and Rights: The Cairo Concensus (PDF: 129KB)
This policy brief looks back over the five years since national leaders, in 1994, made the commitment to a 20-year agreement that recognized a new approach to population and development. The agreement was adoped at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), in Cairo. Since 1994, many countries have formulated new reproductive health policies, tested new ways to provide health services, and promoted the advancement of women. (December 2000)

Client-Centered Quality: Clients' Perspectives and Barriers to Receiving Care
To provide high-quality reproductive health care, providers must understand and respect their clients’ needs, attitudes, and concerns. This policy brief, one in the series “New Perspectives on Quality of Care,” examines the issues that impede quality of care in providing reproductive health information and services from a client's perspective, and the ways in which these barriers can be overcome. (July 2002)

Do Empowered Mothers Foster Gender Equity and Better Reproductive Health in the Next Generation? (PDF: 70KB)
This six-page policy brief investigates whether empowered mothers and mothers-in-law are more likely to promote better reproductive health and positive gender norms among married daughters and daughters-in-law in the next generation. The brief includes recommendations for making policies and programs more effective in supporting women's empowerment. (January 2005) 

Ensuring a Wide Range of Family Planning Choices
The use of contraception varies widely around the world, both in terms of total use and the types of methods used. In many countries, women and couples rely largely on one or two contraceptive methods, because of government policies, the way that national family planning programs have evolved, and cultural or social preferences. Understanding why people prefer some contraceptive methods over others can be useful for strengthening family planning programs. (April 2008)

Expanding Contraceptive Choice: Five Promising Innovations
This policy brief highlights five "next generation" contraceptives, each of which offers one or more advantages over similar earlier methods. These innovations are among those expected to enter the market within five years and can assist country programs to make contraception more accessible and attractive to women and couples. (June 2009)

Family Planning and Economic Well-Being: New Evidence From Bangladesh
Family planning is one of the most cost-effective health interventions in the developing world. For decades, research has shown that for a relatively modest investment, family planning saves lives and improves maternal and child health. However, there have been relatively few studies that shed light on how family planning also lifts families out of poverty. Now, a new study on Bangladesh provides evidence that long-term investment in an integrated family planning and maternal and child health program contributes to improved economic security for families, households, and communities through larger incomes, greater accumulation of wealth, and higher levels of education. (June 2009)

Healthy Mothers and Healthy Newborns: The Vital Link

 Newborn health starts with maternal health. Although infant and child mortality rates have been dropping, little progress has been made to reduce maternal and newborn death rates. (April 2002)

Hidden Suffering: Disabilities From Pregnancy and Childbirth in Less Developed Countries

 Maternal disabilities are tragic on two counts: They occur in the process of giving life, and they are almost entirely preventable. Reducing maternal disabilities is as important for alleviating poverty as it is for reducing needless suffering. (August 2002)

How Does Family Planning Influence Women's Lives? (PDF: 266KB)
This policy brief highlights perhaps the most significant and personal change for women that occurred in the second half of the 20th century: the means to choose whether and when to have children. This "reproductive revolution" has helped give women the chance to pursue new roles and activities outside the home, and to contribute to a country's economic and social development. (October 2000)

Improving the Quality of Reproductive Health Care for Young People (PDF: 223KB)
By involving young people, their families, and providers in improving the quality of reproductive care for youth, countries can improve the future well-being of their citizens. (May 2003)

Improving the Quality of Reproductive Health Care: How Much Does It Cost? (PDF: 238KB)
Quality of care should be the focus of family planning and reproductive health programs. But can programs afford it? There is no simple answer. (May 2003)

Integrating Essential Newborn Care Into Countries' Policies and Programs (PDF: 123KB)

 The need for improved neonatal care is apparent throughout the developing world, but the Saving Newborn Lives initiative recognized that starting in a smaller set of countries would help identify the best approaches. The staff selected focus countries on the magnitude and severity of need, the potential for achieving impact at the national level, the presence of a strong Save the Children country office and local organizations that might serve as partners. The six focus countries were Bangladesh, Bolivia, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, and Pakistan. (October 2003)

Investing in Reproductive Health to Achieve Development Goals: The Middle East and North Africa

 This PRB policy brief outlines who prioritizing women's reproductive health at a national level would help accelerate progress in the MENA region toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals. (January 2006)

Iran's Family Planning Program: Responding to a Nation's Needs

 This overview of Iran's family planning efforts and the role of the Islamic government and civil society in the revival of the national family planning program is the second in a series of policy briefs from the Population Reference Bureau. This series analyzes population, environment, reproductive health, and development linkages within the framework of the Cairo Programme of Action and the cultural contexts of population groups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (June 2002)

Is Education the Best Contraceptive? (PDF: 267KB)
The United Nations, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Population Council, and others have examined the links between education and childbearing to provide a greater understanding of these issues. This policy brief highlights key findings from their investigations. (August 2000)

Islam and Family Planning

 This policy brief gives an overview of Muslim countries' policies on and support for family planning and modern contraception. It reviews Islamic jurisprudence and justifications for sanctioning family planning. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (September 2004)

Making Motherhood Safer in Egypt

 Fewer Egyptian women die of maternal causes today than they did 10 or 15 years ago, thanks to the national safe motherhood program. Nevertheless, maternal mortality in Egypt is still relatively high, and the country faces challenges in reducing it further. This policy brief is also available in Arabic. (March 2004)

Making Pregnancy and Childbirth Safer (PDF: 487KB)
Nearly 600,000 women around the world die of pregnancy-related causes each year. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in less developed countries. This policy brief reviews the causes and consequences of these deaths, and suggests what can be done to make pregnancy and childbirth safer. (August 2000)

Meeting the Reproductive Health Needs of Displaced People

 Reproductive health care is among the crucial elements that can save lives, improve health, and ensure displaced people's basic human welfare and dignity. (July 2002)

Meeting Young Women's Reproductive and Sexual Health Needs (PDF: 269KB)
Meeting young women's needs for reproductive health information and services is vital to their future. At recent world conferences, governments committed to a universal agenda for action to improve the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents. This policy brief highlights the reproductive and sexual health needs of young women, and reviews policies and programs that policymakers and health providers need to create for these women. (September 2000)

Overview of Quality of Care in Reproductive Health: Definitions and Measurements of Quality
High-quality reproductive health care services ensure that clients receive the care that they deserve. This policy brief, one in the series “New Perspectives on Quality of Care,” discusses the various definitions of quality of care in the context of reproductive health services and suggests tools for measuring it. (July 2002)

Powerful Partners: Adolescent Girls' Education and Delayed Childbearing (PDF: 376KB)
More-educated women have fewer children. This seemingly straightforward relationship is actually complex, and the benefits associated with different levels of education can vary considerably by setting. This policy brief describes adolescent girls' reproductive health risks and how increasing their educational attainment reduces those risks, including early and unwanted fertility, and benefits their future families and society. (September 2007)

Preventing Cervical Cancer Worldwide Policy Brief (PDF: 300KB)

 This four-page policy brief summarizes research conducted by the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention on approaches that reduce the burden of cervical cancer in developing countries.(March 2005)

Providers and Quality of Care
Providers of reproductive health information and services face barriers to providing high-quality care, such as local customs and traditions, medical culture, and the strength of the facility and health care system in which they work. This policy brief, one in the series “New Perspectives on Quality of Care,” discusses the important role that providers play in quality of care and the kinds of interventions experts recommend to improve quality of care. (July 2002)

Reproductive Health in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced impressive economic growth in recent decades, but lags behind other developing regions on many indicators of socioeconomic development. Reproductive health is one area in which many African countries face slow progress: Contraceptive use is low and infant and maternal mortality are high. This report examines successes and failures in improving reproductive health in the region, focusing on variations in family size and contraceptive use, maternal mortality, and HIV/AIDS in major sub-Saharan regions. (October 2008)

Reproductive Health Trends in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

 With economic and social transformations in the last 10 years, women in Eastern Europe are more likely to use modern contraception and less likely to have abortions. But maternal and infant death rates are still high, and there is little awareness of how to prevent HIV/AIDS. (September 2003)

Securing Future Supplies for Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Prevention

 Reproductive health experts are concerned about looming shortages of condoms and other contraceptives in less developed countries. If not addressed, shortfalls in supplies could result in an upsurge of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. (February 2002)

Strengthening the Integration of Family Planning and HIV Services
The rationale for integrating family planning/reproductive health and HIV services has long been apparent: Sexually active individuals are at risk of both unintended pregnancies and HIV. This PRB policy brief highlights why service integration makes political and program sense, and describes the lessons learned from successful integration strategies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, and Uganda. This brief also urges policymakers and program managers to make integrated services routinely and widely available. (October 2009)

Taking Stock of Women's Progress

 This policy brief summarizes information contained in PRB's "Women of Our World 2005" datasheet. Data on women's situation can be powerful in demonstrating that discrimination against girls and women is pervasive and merits attention. (May 2005)

The Healthy Newborn Partnership: Improving Newborn Survival and Health Through Partnership, Policy, and Action (PDF: 394KB)

 This policy brief outlines the ways in which the Healthy Newborn Partnership (an interagency group formed to promote newborn health in developing countries) has helped to focus attention on newborn health issues. (July 2004)

The Maternal-Newborn-Child Health Continuum of Care: A Collective Effort to Save Lives (PDF: 158KB)
Each year, millions of women, newborns, and children die from preventable causes. While the interventions that could save their lives are widely known, they are not often avilable to those most in need. This policy brief, one in the series "Policy Perspectives on Newborn Health," describes how a continuum of care could improve the health and survival of women, newborns, and children worldwide. (March 2006)

The Unfinished Agenda: Meeting the Need for Family Planning in Less Developed Countries (PDF: 306KB)

 Family planning programs have yielded dramatically positive gains over the past 50 years. In developing countries, about half of couples now use modern contraception. Despite these gains, contraceptive use is still low and the need high in some of the world's poorest and most populous places. (November 2004)

Unintended Pregnancies Remain High in Jordan
This research paper intends to help policymakers and program managers in Jordan understand the extent and nature of unintended pregnancies and their implications for women and their families. The analysis was done by Rozzet Jurdi, a Ph.D. candidate in social demography at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. This paper was published as part of PRB's MENA Working Paper Series (September 2008)

Unmet Need for Family Planning: Recent Trends and Their Implications for Programs (PDF: 293KB)

 Obstacles other than physical access to services prevent many women from using family planning. This unmet need for contraception can lead to unintended pregnancies, which pose risks for women, their families, and societies. (March 2003)

Using Evidence to Save Newborn Lives
While the overall health of children has improved around the world, the death rate of newborns — babies less than one month old — has hardly changed; in some countries it has even increased. This report presents findings from a comprehensive review of evidence on the impact of newborn health interventions in less developed countries and offers compelling support for using research as a tool for identifying the most effective measures for saving newborn lives. (May 2003)

Why Invest in Newborn Health? (PDF: 268KB)

 This policy brief highlights two compelling reasons for investing in neonatal health services: Such investment is key to achieving health and development goals, and it is part of protecting newborns' human rights. (April 2003)

Women's Reproductive Health in the Middle East and North Africa (PDF: 234KB)
About half of the 10 million women who give birth each year in the Middle East and North Africa have some kind of complication, with more then 1 million of them suffering serious injuries that lead to long-term illness. (February 2003)

Young People's Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Middle East and North Africa

 In the Middle East and North Africa, the risks associated with sexual relationships, both married and unmarried, are heightened by young people's lack of access to information and services related to sexual and reproductive health. Programs that provide such information and services would benefit young people whether they are sexually active now or not, preparing them to make more informed decisions about marriage, sexual relationships, and childbearing.(April 2007)