PRB

The Challenge

Higher education institutions in the East African Community (EAC) face a critical shortage of qualified faculty, threatening both educational quality and the region’s ability to prepare the next generation of leaders, professionals, and researchers. Strong tertiary institutions are essential for human capital development—equipping young people not only with the skills to succeed in the workforce, but also with the knowledge and perspectives needed to contribute to innovation, leadership, and broader social progress. Yet effective planning for faculty recruitment, development, and retention requires accurate and comparable data, which in the EAC is often fragmented, outdated, or incomplete.

Phase 1 of the Demographics of African Faculty–East African Community (DAF-EAC) project confirmed these issues, documenting major data gaps, inconsistencies across institutions and countries, and limited institutional capacity for data collection and management. Without stronger systems and harmonized approaches, universities, policymakers, and funders lack the evidence needed to project future needs, address gender and disciplinary imbalances, or design effective strategies for strengthening higher education. The result is a direct threat to human capital development and to the ability of EAC countries to build the skilled, knowledgeable workforce and civic leaders required for their future.

Our Approach

DAF-EAC addresses these challenges through a phased strategy that combines rigorous data analysis with stakeholder engagement. PRB is partnering with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the Association of African Universities (AAU), and Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA) in a consortium that brings together complementary expertise in policy, advocacy, research, and technical analysis.

In Phase 1 (2021–2023), the consortium documented the availability and quality of student and faculty data, analyzed current staffing and student-teacher ratios to estimate the gap in demand and supply of faculty, and developed projections of future needs under different scenarios. These efforts provided the first regional resource on faculty data availability and highlighted critical gaps by producing estimates and projections of the number of faculty deficits. By quantifying these gaps, the project showed just how far institutions must go to recruit and retain the faculty necessary to prepare future workers and sustain human capital development. PRB contributed technical leadership by developing the DAF model for estimating and projecting faculty demand during the Ghana pilot (2018), adapting it to the EAC context, and leading the regional analysis. PRB also designed training materials and delivered a virtual workshop that supported IUCEA-appointed lead researchers and country teams in strengthening their skills in data collection, harmonization, and analysis.

In Phase 2 (2023–2025), the consortium is building on this foundation to strengthen data systems and practices. Key activities include benchmarking existing data collection tools and establishing baselines; refining indicators critical for faculty staffing, such as attrition, doctoral pipelines, and dual appointments; developing harmonized data collection guidelines for the region; and raising awareness of the importance of data management. PRB is working with IUCEA researchers to refine and document key indicators and supporting the development of the harmonized guidelines. These efforts are helping to ensure that higher education institutions have the evidence they need to plan effectively for future faculty, which is central to building strong institutions that can educate the region’s future workforce.

Lessons and outputs from both phases are being shared across the region and continent through IUCEA and AAU platforms, at continental meetings such as COREVIP, and via other conferences and policy forums. In this way, the project not only strengthens data practices in East Africa but also contributes to continental dialogues on investing in higher education and the human capital that will drive Africa’s economic growth, leadership, and social development in the decades ahead.

The DAF-EAC project is made possible with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Overview

EngenderHealth’s Protecting SRHR in the Context of Fertility Decline pilot project is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and implemented in partnership with PRB. Through this project, we are exploring how concerns about declining fertility at national and sub-national levels influence support for investments in contraception and other reproductive health services.

This exploratory effort will gather insights from representatives from global and national spheres to identify and understand fertility anxiety, develop contextualized messages that champion sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) amid shifting fertility trends, and support a range of actors including journalists in communicating about the topic.

The Challenge

Fertility trends are reshaping national and global SRHR priorities. Concerns about declining fertility rates and push-back about external pressures to reduce childbearing are prompting some decision-makers to deprioritize reproductive health services, including contraceptive access.

Without proactive engagement and clear, evidence-based communication, there is a real risk that reproductive health programs, and contraceptive access in particular, will lose support, leaving the needs of women and girls unmet.

The Impact

This initiative addresses these challenges by: 

• Reframing the conversation around fertility decline to reflect a rights-based lens.
• Developing data-driven messaging to counter opposition to contraceptive access.
• Strengthening advocacy efforts locally and globally to protect sexual and reproductive rights.

Key Project Activities

Listening to Communities and Leaders

• Interviews with a diverse range of stakeholders in four countries: Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, including with government leaders, community groups, journalists, researchers, and health experts.
• Group consultations with regional and global networks of stakeholders, including representatives of national population councils, civil society, and healthcare professionals.
• These conversations will gather perspectives on fertility decline and family planning to address real concerns and priorities.

Developing and Testing Messages

• Clear, evidence-based messages developed to explain the nuanced relationship between fertility trends, SRHR, and broader development effects.
• Messages and messaging resources tested with different audiences to ensure they resonate and effectively counter misinformation about family planning.

Supporting Journalists and Media

• Training and small grants provided to journalists to support accurate and sensitive reporting on sexual and reproductive health in the context of fertility decline.
• Promotion of greater public awareness and informed discussions on SRHR issues.

Building Connections and Sharing Knowledge

• Virtual meetings to share findings, gather feedback, and build networks among stakeholders.
• Exploration of a community of practice to connect organizations and advocates working on fertility decline and SRHR, fostering resource and idea sharing across regions.

Expected Outcomes

This pilot will complete interviews across four countries and a series of global consultations, the results of which will be distilled into a synthesis brief that guides future action. At least 10 journalists will be supported to share accurate, impactful stories, promoting informed conversations about fertility decline and reproductive rights.

Together, these efforts will build a stronger, more informed movement to safeguard reproductive rights and contraceptive access in a world experiencing rapid fertility shifts.

The Challenge

In the United States, more than 19 million women aged 13 to 44 live in contraceptive deserts—areas with insufficient access to the full range of contraceptive methods—and this burden disproportionately affects women of color. Key barriers to contraceptive access include cost, health insurance gaps, widespread misinformation and disinformation, bias, and health care provider shortages. These barriers unduly impact individuals who are already marginalized based on factors such as age, income, race/ethnicity, geographic area, education level, and/or exposure to violence.

Many of the barriers to contraceptive access in the United States are directly or indirectly shaped by federal and state policies. This patchwork of policies has created a tiered system that promotes or inhibits access to effective and affordable contraceptive care based on a person’s state of residence. Such a confusing policy landscape is detrimental to patients seeking information and care and to policymakers and advocates working to expand and protect access to contraceptive services.

Our Approach

In State of Access—funded by Arnold Ventures—PRB has created a tool that assesses the extent to which each U.S. state’s policy environment enables and supports access to contraceptives. To provide clarity to the confusing policy landscape governing contraceptive access in the United States, the State of Access Scorecard compiles and synthesizes evidence on contraceptive access policy in two ways:

1. Identifies policy and program interventions that provide evidence in support of increased contraceptive access and develops a framework that gauges the favorability of state-level policy environments for contraceptive access.
2. Uses various existing databases, populates indicator data into a scorecard so users can easily interpret and compare state policy environments for contraceptive access.

Our Impact

State of Access disentangles the complex, fractured environment for contraceptive access and reproductive health outcomes in the United States. It provides a comprehensive, evidence-based, nonpartisan, accessible resource that a range of audiences—including policymakers, journalists, program implementers, donors, and advocates—can use to propel their practice and policymaking.

Access the State of Access Scorecard

Watch the Webinar

The Challenge

Advocates and community members need evidence-based resources to support their efforts to advance children’s well-being in California.

The KidsData project makes data on the health and well-being of California’s children accessible to policymakers, service providers, grant seekers, media, parents, and others who influence children’s lives. The project provides context that distills key research and works with the user community to empower advocates and community members by providing them with resources they can use.

Our Approach

We collect current and historical data for nearly 60 topics of child well-being from more than 35 sources. Topic strengths include adverse childhood experiences; child poverty; and physical, emotional, and behavioral health. We also extensively cover child safety, childcare, education, demographic projections, homelessness, safety net programs, and more. We draw on data sources that include the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, California state agencies’ data files, and health surveys such as the National Survey of Children’s Health, California Healthy Kids Survey, and California Health Interview Survey. Data are provided for California’s counties, cities, school districts, and state legislative districts.

We have also developed innovative estimation methods to improve access to data on child health topics for some demographic subgroups and in small geographic regions. The KidsData program raises awareness about important data findings and demographic and geographic disparities in child health and well-being through newsletters, social media, and presentations. Through a network of collaborations with other organizations, we provide substantive and technical expertise to support beneficial outcomes in shared interest areas of children’s well-being. Data are available at www.KidsData.org.

KidsData.org is a source that I use on a regular basis for factual, non-partisan data.

– Debbie Look, California Assembly member

Impacts & Outcomes

PRB, the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health (LPFCH), and The Children’s Partnership partnered on an analysis of the implications for child health of changes to the Public Charge Rule. Through this analysis we found that nearly 180,000 noncitizen children in California would be at direct risk of losing their health insurance coverage—mostly Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—under the revised rule. An additional 1.6 million citizen children of noncitizen parents in California could also be at risk. Learn more.

PRB analyzed trends in public health insurance (such as Medicaid and CHIP) among children in California. Through this analysis, we discovered that in 2015 and 2016, seven in 10 children in California participated in Medicaid or CHIP, either temporarily or year-round. Using these data, LPFCH wrote an advisory that sparked discussion of children’s health insurance among state legislators. Learn more.

PRB has been a long-term partner to the U.S. Census Bureau, helping to inform policymakers, the media, and the public about the importance of data from the decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS). Under this project, we work in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau to:

• Manage activities for an ACS Data Users Group and Online Community.
• Organize ACS Data Users Conferences, workshops, and sessions and professional meetings.
• Develop ACS training materials to help data users access and understand ACS data products and applications.

These activities have facilitated communication about decennial census and ACS issues and applications among a broad group of data users, as well as between data users and the Census Bureau.

ACS Data Users Group

PRB established an ACS Data Users Group to improve understanding of the value and utility of ACS data and to promote information sharing about key ACS data issues and applications. To facilitate communication among data users, we maintain an ACS Online Community and organize webinars and special sessions at professional meetings. Membership in the group is free. It is led by a Steering Committee that represents a broad spectrum of ACS data users with different interests.

ACS Data Users Conferences

We have organized six ACS Data Users Conferences in partnership with the Census Bureau. More than 700 ACS data users attended the hybrid 2023 ACS Data Users Conference, held May 16-18, 2023, in Washington, DC.  The program brought together more than 50 contributed presentations by ACS data users, invited sessions with Census Bureau staff, Census Bureau product demonstrations, and opportunities for networking.

ACS and Decennial Census Resources

PRB collaborated with the Census Bureau to write a series of Handbooks, Modules, and Case Studies for different ACS data user communities, including journalists, businesses, state and local governments, and others. The handbooks provide an overview of the ACS to help data users understand the basics of the survey, how the data can be used, how to judge the accuracy of ACS estimates, and how to access ACS data on the web.

PRB staff are writing a series of briefs that provide concise, reader-friendly information to data users about the new 2020 Census Disclosure Avoidance System.

We also developed resources to help data users understand and use the Census Bureau’s Statistical Testing Tool, Application Programming Interface (API), ACS Public Use Microdata Sample, and ACS Summary File.

The Challenge

Thousands of women in sub-Saharan Africa die each year from pregnancy-related causes. Unsafe abortions account for one in seven maternal deaths in Africa, and more than 1.5 million women are treated each year for complications from unsafe abortion. Young African women are especially affected: More than half of unsafe abortions in the region are among women under age 25. Reducing deaths from unsafe abortion requires a policy environment that supports women to equitably access comprehensive prevention and treatment services—contraception, safe abortion, and postabortion care.

Our Approach

The four-year SAFE ENGAGE project is implemented in countries across sub-Saharan Africa, including Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lagos state in Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. SAFE ENGAGE also contains a rapid response mechanism through which other national and regional partners can request creative, data-driven communications materials to support specific advocacy objectives.

SAFE ENGAGE

• Advances policy dialogue for safe abortion by creating compelling evidence-based multimedia presentations and other materials for policymakers, advocates, and journalists.
• Builds country-level individual and institutional capacity to use evidence for policy advocacy to promote safe abortion and reduce unsafe abortion.
• Works with journalists to increase the quality and quantity of evidence-based news coverage on safe abortion through in-country media training and journalists’ engagement.

Impact

SAFE ENGAGE established four country-level task forces that brought together demographers, economists, medical professionals, women’s health and rights proponents, policymakers from government ministries, and parliamentarians for discussions about abortion. These task forces created spaces for collaboration and information sharing that broadened dialogue to include new perspectives, created consensus around objectives and messages, and renewed a focus on evidence. Each task force produced and disseminated ENGAGE multimedia presentation packages. This process strengthened the capacity of task force members to use data and messaging effectively in their own presentations and materials, strengthened collaboration and consensus among safe abortion champions, and generated important policy conversations that are continuing today.

SAFE ENGAGE also supported an intensive media training effort to equip a cadre of journalists in each country to accurately report on the policies and laws surrounding abortion and the determinants, incidence, and consequences of unsafe abortion. Each country setting required its own context-specific focus, and this tailored approach has reaped the reward of high-quality reporting across diverse news outlets.

During the second phase of the project, SAFE ENGAGE built on the work of the task forces by conducting policy communication training and regional learning exchanges to strengthen Task Force members’ ability to communicate with policy audiences and foster collaboration across neighboring countries. The regional learning exchanges also allowed participants to learn from each other’s successes and brainstorm approaches to overcoming shared challenges. SAFE ENGAGE also produced a guide to policy dialogue for safe abortion, which synthesized learning from the first phase of the project.

The Challenge

Young people’s ability to forge healthy relationships is influenced by social norms—the informal rules that govern behavior in groups and societies—that are enforced by peers, families, and communities. Social norms shape behaviors related to sexual debut, intimate partner and sexual violence, and early marriage, as well as access to education and the services and information young people need to protect their health. Research has shown that investing in efforts to create normative change at the community (rather than individual) level, while ensuring supportive policies and access to good quality services, can bring about significant improvements in sexual and reproductive health.

PRB partners with the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH), Georgetown University to support knowledge translation and strategic communication for the Passages Project, a USAID-funded implementation research project. Passages aims to address a broad range of social norms to achieve sustained improvements in family planning, reproductive health, and gender-based violence. PRB’s partnership expands Passages’ global leadership and dissemination efforts that focus on information synthesis, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.

Our Approach

In the first phase of the project, PRB developed a strategic communications plan to ensure the project’s legacy is well communicated to key stakeholders. Working with IRH and existing Passages consortium partners, PRB is developing a range of legacy products that are evidence-based, practical, and accessible to a targeted range of stakeholders:

• In consultation with IRH, design, develop, review, and create a suite of visually compelling and technically engaging communications products drawing from Passages’ existing and emerging work, including but not limited to written, digital, and video products.
• Design and implement in-person and digital knowledge-sharing/dissemination efforts.
• Capture information on the impact of the Passages communications strategy to convey the project’s success and inform IRH’s future work.

Explore Passages Project resources

Follow the project on Twitter