TY - JOUR T1 - Investing in Family Planning: Key to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT SP - 191 LP - 210 DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-15-00374 VL - 4 IS - 2 AU - Ellen Starbird AU - Maureen Norton AU - Rachel Marcus Y1 - 2016/06/20 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/4/2/191.abstract N2 - Voluntary family planning brings transformational benefits to women, families, communities, and countries. Investing in family planning is a development “best buy” that can accelerate achievement across the 5 Sustainable Development Goal themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership.Family planning encompasses the services, policies, information, attitudes, practices, and commodities, including contraceptives, that give women, men, couples, and adolescents the ability to avoid unintended pregnancy and choose whether and/or when to have a child. In this commentary, we outline family planning’s links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlight the transformational benefits that voluntary family planning brings to women, families, communities, and countries. We present family planning as a cross-sectoral intervention that can hasten progress across the 5 SDG themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership (Figure). We particularly stress family planning’s:Link to human rights, gender equality, and empowermentImpact on maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent healthRole in shaping economic development and environmental and political futuresFIGURE The 5 Sustainable Development Goal Themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and PartnershipAccelerating progress in these areas is critical for SDG achievement.We set forth evidence on ways that family planning can influence SDG achievement. At times, the evidence is strong; at other times, less so. Our hope is that the evidence gaps will motivate researchers to address unanswered questions. Most importantly, we hope that the evidence presented here leads to action at the international and country level—to fully support organized, voluntary family planning in the public and private commercial sectors, as well as through civil society.This paper outlines the multiple reasons why investing in family planning is a good decision at every level. It is aligned with recent studies that find that investing in family planning is a development “best buy.”1 Accordingly, we hope that the … ER -