TY - JOUR T1 - Language and Measurement of Contraceptive Need and Making These Indicators More Meaningful for Measuring Fertility Intentions of Women and Girls JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00450 AU - Ilene S. Speizer AU - Jason Bremner AU - Shiza Farid Y1 - 2022/02/24 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/early/2022/02/22/GHSP-D-21-00450.abstract N2 - Key Messages“Need”-based measures, such as unmet need and demand satisfied, are indicators used at the global level to assess progress in the family planning (FP) field and provide strong justification for FP programs.These measures are commonly misused or misinterpreted and might not actually represent what girls and women want or need in terms of contraceptive methods and services.To strengthen understanding and use, we recommend that inaccurate and confusing language be removed from the names and labels of these measures and that the FP field work to identify more accurate language.Using a human rights and reproductive justice lens, the field needs to do 2 things: (1) consider refinements to current measures that better capture self-identified needs and preferences; and (2) develop new measures that capture the perspectives of users, potential users, and non-users; this likely requires formative research with women, men, and couples on motivations, aspirations, and preferences around fertility desires and contraceptive use.FP2030 (https://www.FP2030.org) is the next phase of the FP2020 global partnership which has the vision of a future where all women and girls, no matter where they live, have the freedom and ability to make their own informed decisions about using modern contraception and whether or when to have children. FP2030 recognizes the importance of women and girls’ autonomy in seeking and using family planning (FP) services if and when they choose. As part of this initiative, the Performance, Monitoring and Evidence Working Group (PME-WG), an independent group of FP measurement experts from a wide range of institutions, will support the monitoring of policy and program efforts and accountability through routine review of country-level core indicators (https://www.fp2030.org/get-data). As the PME-WG establishes the measures to monitor FP2030, the group recognizes the need to review and expand its measurement framework and indicators to align them with the … ER -