The Guttmacher Institute is pleased to announce the release of the Family Planning Investment Impact Calculator, an interactive tool designed to help advocates, donors and governments estimate the benefits that would accrue from investing in family planning programs and services in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).This tool offers a new way to showcase how access to modern contraceptives and family planning services lead to positive health, social and economic outcomes for women, families and society.

“We are very excited to roll out the Family Planning Impact Investment Calculator. This innovative online tool will provide stakeholders with evidence-based estimates of the health benefits they can expect to realize for their country’s population from investments in family planning services,” says Dr. Herminia Palacio, President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute. “Funding sexual and reproductive health care is not only the right and sensible thing to do for the health of women and girls—it’s also a smart investment that leads to significant savings in the long run.”

For any given investment amount (in a wide selection of currencies), the calculator estimates the number of modern contraceptive users that would be served, unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions that would be averted, women’s and girls’ lives that would be saved, and cost savings that would accrue for health systems. The tool will also produce graphics and a summary table illustrating the benefits of investments in family planning in any LMIC or for subregional and regional groupings of LMICs.

“Investments in sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning programs, are at a critical juncture, particularly as decision makers in resource-stricken countries continue to face difficult budgetary decisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This new tool is a game changer. Users are now able to generate data and graphics that show what improvements in health outcomes, lives saved and cost savings to health systems can result from a certain level of investment, and then use this information to strengthen their advocacy efforts,” says Elizabeth Sully, Senior Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute.

Read the full news release at Guttmacher.org