Africa

Meeting the need: youth and family planning in sub-Saharan Africa

Ndola Prata
Karen Weidert
Amita Sreenevas
2012

Background: The need for a concerted effort to address the gaps in family planning services for youth in sub-Saharan Africa has been underreported and underexplored.

Study Design: Trends in fertility, childbearing, unmet need for family planning options and contraceptive prevalence (CP) among youth are described with data from six African countries with four consecutive Demographic and Health Surveys. Estimates of exposure to risk of pregnancy and number of new contraceptives users needed to maintain and double CP in 2015 are calculated using current CP and...

Big issues deserve bold responses: Population and climate change in the Sahel

Malcolm Potts
Alisha Graves
2013

Parts of Africa have the most rapid population growth in the world. Recent studies by climatologists suggest that, in coming decades, ecologically vulnerable areas of Africa, including the Sahel will be exposed to the harshest adverse effects of global warming. The threat hanging over parts of sub-Saharan Africa is extreme. Fortunately, there are evidence-based achievable policies which can greatly ameliorate what would otherwise be a slowly unfolding catastrophe of stunning magnitude. But to succeed such measures must be taken immediately and on a large scale....

Why Bold Policies for Family Planning are Needed Now

Malcolm Potts
Rachel Weinrib
Martha Campbell
2013

Last spring at a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) talk in Berlin, Melinda Gates used this phrase, “The most transformative thing you can do is to give people access to birth control.” She expressed similar sentiments at the London Summit on Family Planning on July 11, 2012, as did the British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Andrew Mitchell who was then Secretary of State for the Department for International Development, the British equivalent of United States Agency for International Development. The London Summit represented a new focus on international family planning after...

Les grandes questions meritent des responses audacieuses: la population et le changement climatique au Sahel

Malcolm Potts
Alisha Graves
2013

Certaines régions d’Afrique ont la croissance démographique la plus rapide du monde. Des études récentes menées par les climatologues indiquent que dans les prochaines décennies, les zones écologiquement vulnérables de l’Afrique, y compris le Sahel, seront exposées aux effets néfastes les plus sévères du réchauffement climatique. La menace qui pèse sur certaines régions de l’Afrique sub-saharienne est extrême. Heureusement, il existe des politiques réalistes fondées sur des preuves qui peuvent largement améliorer ce qui autrement constituerait une catastrophe qui s’évolue lentement d...

Making a Difference with Misoprostol: The Case of VSI

Ndola Prata
Pamela Norick
Shannon Bledsoe
Richard Lowe
Molly Moran
VSI
2014

Since Nigeria became the first country in the world to register misoprostol, there has been an explosion in global interest around the medicine. VSI is proud to have contributed to this body of work with its unique approach and pioneering misoprostol program.

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