Moving FP Measurement Forward with a Rights and Justice Lens

An interactive session at IPC2025 in Brisbane, Australia, 14 July 2025 

On July 14, 2025, the IUSSP Panel on Rethinking Family Planning Measurement with a Reproductive Justice and Rights Lens convened an interactive, 1.5 hour research leaders session at the International Population Conference in Brisbane Australia. Panel members Elizabeth Sully, Ilene Speizer, Niranjan Saggurti, Georgina Binstock, Irene Casique, and Madeleine Short Fabic led participants through a two-part exercise building on the consultative process the Panel initiated in late-2024. Panel members Fredrick Makumbi and Abdul-Moumouni Nouhou supported session planning but were unable to attend the conference.

The session was attended by about 60 participants from across the globe. The session provided a description of the Panel activities to date followed by a brief presentation on the rationale for improved measurement of family planning key indicators of demand and use.  As part of the session, organizers asked participants to “vote with their feet” by asking them to participate in small group discussions based on their top priorities for family planning measurement.  The discussion was interactive and engaging and provided supportive information to what was found in an online survey undertaken in late 2024. The findings from the survey and in-depth discussions during the conference session will inform a paper under development on stakeholders’ perspectives on new directions for family planning measurement. These consultative processes have been set up to support the panel as it works towards its next activity of development of recommendations for new family planning measures.  

The Panel also shared at the conference that they have produced a special issue in Studies in Family Planning that updates the field on what we know to date around family planning measurement with a rights and justice lens. While most of the papers have already been released (see here for online viewing only), the official publication is not yet online. The special issue will be available in open access and advertised in the next IUSSP Bulletin. The Panel-written introduction offers a nice summary of the 17 papers that are included in the special issue.