IUSSP at the “Lundis de l’INED” lecture series: Rethinking Global Family Planning Measurement: Bringing in a Rights, Justice and Person-Centered Lens
Monday 16 March 2026
10:30-11:30 Universal Time
(11:30-12:30 in Paris) Presentations will be in English with English-French interpretation for those joining the meeting virtually via Zoom.
Les personnes souhaitant participer virtuellement à la séance (via Zoom) devront s’inscrire à l’avance (ici). Les présentations se feront en anglais. Une interprétation simultanée anglais/français sera disponible pour les participants en visio (Zoom).
Presenters (in person): - Ilene Speizer, Research Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center.
- Elizabeth Sully, Director of International Research at the Guttmacher Institute.
Discussant: - Heini Vaïsänen, Researcher, French Institute for Demographic Studies - INED, & Associate Researcher, University of Southampton (United Kingdom), Associate Editor, Demographic Research.
Description: The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Rethinking Family Planning Measurement with a Reproductive Justice and Rights Lens has been working for the last three years to help strengthen measurement of the need for and use of family planning. This presentation provides a summary of the Panel’s work and important advancements being made in family planning measurement.
Our presentation will review the major paradigms of family planning measurement and arguments for new frameworks and measures as we move into the next era of global indicators (i.e., post-Sustainable Development Goals). Drawing on the three frameworks of reproductive rights, reproductive justice, and person-centered measurement, we lay out what should be guiding the development and adoption of new family planning measures.
We share findings from a global consensus-building exercise around improved family planning measurement and summarize findings from that exercise. Finally, we present findings from a recommendations workshop held with a global pool of experts in November 2025 and present draft recommendations from our three-year scope of work.  Ilene Speizer, PhD, is currently Research Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center. She is a demographer and evaluation researcher and has led research and evaluation studies in Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Togo, and South Africa), India, Haiti, and the U.S. Much of her work focuses on family planning, HIV prevention, the meaning and measurement of unintended pregnancy, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence. She has led a number of Gates Foundation funded projects on sexual and reproductive health and adolescent health. Ilene Speizer co-chairs the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Rethinking Family Planning Measurement with a Reproductive Justice and Rights Lens.
Elizabeth Sully, PhD, is Director of International Research at the Guttmacher Institute. Dr. Sully joined the Guttmacher Institute as a Senior Research Scientist in 2015 and became Director of International Research in 2025. Her research focuses on abortion measurement, adolescent reproductive health, and the impact and cost-effectiveness of sexual and reproductive health services. She has authored influential studies on the indirect estimation of abortion, contraceptive need and use, and the returns on investment in family planning services that have advanced measurement and informed policy deliberations internationally. Dr. Sully holds leadership positions on international scientific bodies, including co-chairing the FP2030 Performance Monitoring Working Group and serving on UNFPA’s technical advisory group on sexual and reproductive agency. Dr. Sully earned her PhD in public affairs and demography from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Office of Population Research, her MA in public affairs from Princeton, and her BA with Joint Honors in political science and international development studies from McGill University. Elizabeth Sully co-chairs the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Rethinking Family Planning Measurement with a Reproductive Justice and Rights Lens.
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