Guiding principles

1. No woman can be truly free unless she can decide whether and when to have a child.
2. Access to family planning saves infant and maternal lives.
3. Children born into smaller families are healthier and more likely to enter and stay in school.
4. Efforts to achieve environmental sustainability are undermined by current global population growth.
5. Slowing population growth is a necessary, although not sufficient, step to escaping poverty.
6. Family size has always fallen when women can access reliable methods of family planning.
7. Evidence-based interventions that are cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable are vital in helping the poorest of poor.
8. To achieve a more sustainable future, the root causes of environmental degradation including population growth and over-consumption of natural resources, must be addressed