Today in Washington there is serious talk about drastically cutting support for international family planning, even though it is one of the most cost-effective foreign assistance programs the United States funds. Given its centrality to many pressing foreign policy issues and its demonstrated high return on investment, international family planning is an area of assistance that deserves greater priority.

This project seeks to reframe family planning as a critical U.S. foreign policy issue, highlighting its effects on global health, economic development, international security, environmental sustainability, and women's empowerment.

It is directed by Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program, and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative Isobel Coleman and Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and Deputy Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

This project is made possible by the generosity of the United Nations Foundation.

Reports commissioned as part of this project reflect the judgments and recommendations of the author(s). They do not necessarily represent the views of members of the study group, whose involvement in no way should be interpreted as an endorsement of these reports by either themselves or the organizations with which they are affiliated.