Jill Chanley
Senior Policy Advisor
Project Leader
The Challenge
As advocacy organizations engage with a range of decisionmakers to achieve their family planning policy goals, they need diversified communication messages and tools grounded in local evidence to address their different audiences’ priorities.
Analysis and synthesis of data and research are at the core of PRB’s technical work on family planning and reproductive health issues. The Family Planning Advocacy Resource Hub products reflect our deep experience inspiring policymakers to strengthen their commitments to family planning and related issues.
Through the Family Planning Advocacy Resource Hub, we deliver evidence-based content in compelling formats that make data and information accessible to expert and generalist audiences alike. The Family Planning Advocacy Resource Hub was created under PRB’s Empowering Evidence-Driven Advocacy project.
Evidence-Based Communication Products Tailored to Your Needs
PRB works together with family planning advocacy partners in Africa and Asia to create customized, impactful communications materials that propel their advocacy efforts. We customize materials based on partners’ advocacy needs, goals, and existing capacity for end results that help to achieve quick wins. To date, PRB has developed a number of innovative products, including videos, policy briefs, multimedia presentations, a comic book, pocket-sized infographics, and factsheets to support national and subnational advocacy.
Working with PRB has given us immense clarity on the three main points of developing an advocacy collateral—the audience, why, and how.
Dr. Sanchika Gupta, Former Program Officer, Jhpiego India
Impact
The materials created under the Advocacy Resource Hub have contributed to the use of evidence in family planning policies and decisionmaking in multiple partner countries.
- DSW Kenya advocates and others convinced Nyandarua County’s health department to set aside funds in their annual workplan for family planning sensitization and staff training on youth-friendly services.
- Jhpiego India‘s advocacy efforts helped convince policymakers in Jharkhand State to develop an adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health strategy document.
- The Forum for Family Planning and Development in the Philippines used materials to clarify misconceptions about family planning methods among elected officials, who used the information they learned about specific family planning methods to draft ordinances in support of reproductive health.
- The Association for Reproductive and Family Health‘s sub-national advocacy efforts in Nigeria led to the Kwara State Director of Public Health committing to include DMPA-SC in the family planning budget and making sure this method is always available at public facilities.
- Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development Uganda received a signed commitment from the minister of health to increase the national budget for family planning commodities.
- Femmes Santé et Développement‘s advocacy in Cameroon led the Ministry of Health to evaluate the implementation of Adolescent Reproductive Health Units and begin developing a strategy for strengthening them.
- Faith to Action Network convinced the East African Legislative Assembly parliamentarians to retable the East African Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Bill for discussion and approval.
Media Contact
Paola Scommegna
Senior Writer
PRB Support and Training for Journalists
We build the capacity of individual journalists and youth activists to use data to more effectively communicate with their audiences to help shape public discourse on health, gender, and population issues.
American Community Survey Data Users Community
As a U.S. Census Bureau partner we help inform policymakers, the media, and the public about the value of data from the decennial census and American Community Survey(ACS).
PRB staff are experts in global health, population data and trends, and U.S. Census data. We also provide training in issues-based journalism and policy communication.
To learn more about our experts, please visit Leadership and Staff.
MEDIA MENTIONS
Is the Poverty Line, Created Five Decades Ago, an Effective Measure of Need? Experts Say No.
USA Today | Dec. 9, 2022
Beth Jarosz discusses the history and limitations of the current federal poverty line and offers recommendations.
As Biden Turns 80, Americans Ask ‘What’s Too Old?’
Reuters | Nov. 11, 2022
The article cites PRB data on aging trends in the United States.
Russia’s ‘Catastrophic’ Missing Men Problem
The Week | Nov. 5, 2022
The article highlights a blog by PRB board member Jennifer D. Sciubba about the link between demographic changes in a country and its approach to foreign policy.
Lawmakers Push to End Maternal Health Crisis
The Hill | Nov. 4, 2022
The article cites PRB reporting on the disparity in mortality rates between Black women and white women.
The Math Behind the Poverty Line: Researcher Says Calculations Don’t Account for High Housing Costs
Here & Now, WBUR | Nov. 1, 2022
Beth Jarosz discusses how the federal poverty line was set, why it’s outdated, and what changes might help.
Delaware (barely) surpasses 1 million residents − and many of them are older adults
Delaware Online | Nov. 1, 2022
The article cites a 2020 PRB article on the changes in the size of families in the United States.
‘Full-Time Work Doesn’t Pay’: Why Are So Many Working American Families Living Day to Day?
USA Today | Sept. 6, 2022
The article cites a PRB explainer on how poverty is measured in the United States.
I Work An Extra Job Because Childcare Costs More than My Salary. It’s Either That or Give Up My Career.
Market Insider | Aug. 29, 2022
The article cites KidsData’s findings on the cost of childcare in San Francisco.
Involve Stakeholders in Implementing Reproductive Health Policy
The Standard | Aug. 8, 2022
The article cites data on contraceptive use among adolescent girl from PRB’s 2021 World Population Data Sheet.
A 50 year shift to Virginia’s suburbs likely to move to the exurbs next
Virginia Public Media | July 12, 2022
Mark Mather discussed population changes in Virginia over the coming 50 years.
US Birth Rates Rose Slightly in 2021 After a Steep Drop in the First Year of the Pandemic, CDC Data Shows
CNN | May 24, 2022
Beth Jarosz discussed new data showing a slight increase in U.S. birth rates in 2021.
Featured Experts
Linda A. Jacobsen
Senior Fellow
Toshiko Kaneda
Technical Director, Demographic Research
Beth Jarosz
Program Director
Experts
Linda A. Jacobsen
Senior Fellow
Barbara Seligman
Chief Strategy & Growth Officer; Senior Vice President, International Programs
Elizabeth Leahy Madsen
Associate Vice President
Many of our partnerships span decades, built on good faith relationships established by our direct experiences with individuals and organizations across the globe at the intersection of the environment, health, family planning, and population.
We work with a wide range of partners in sectors including government, nonprofit, research, business, and philanthropy. Our approach focuses on evidence, audience, and context.
For more than 30 years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has relied on PRB to build the capacity of organizations around the world to accurately and effectively convey messages to decisionmakers that propel changes in areas such as gender, family planning, and reproductive health. Our capacity-building approach supports partners’ leadership in sustainable development. We work with longstanding partners to provide resources and limited, highly specific technical assistance. For those facing institutional challenges, we provide a full suite of support, including mentorship from peer institutions, technical training, and collaborative creation of communications materials.
Researchers and decisionmakers have relied on PRB’s expertise to oversee multiple programs for the U.S. Census Bureau since 2013. In partnership with the Census Bureau, PRB created and manages communities to support researchers, data users, and policymakers working with American Community Survey (ACS) data; organizes annual ACS Data Users conferences; and plays a key role in the creation of Census Bureau data products.
PRB’s manages multiple complex technical programs for several partners and clients around the world each year.
Examples
American Community Survey Data Users Group
Since 2012, PRB has worked in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau to increase knowledge and use of American Community Survey data by establishing and maintaining an ACS Data Users Group and Online Community of more than 2,000 members.
MOMENTUM Knowledge Accelerator
PRB leads this USAID-funded program supporting improvements in voluntary family planning and reproductive health activities, providing health and cost benefits to USAID priority countries. (Photo: Kate Holt/MCSP)
The PACE Project
Working with local partners PRB builds champions, bridges sectors, and distills evidence to ensure that family planning, reproductive health, and population issues are recognized as key to sustainable and equitable economic growth and development.
Across the United States, we track social, economic, and health indicators for children. Internationally, we measure health risk factors among youth and support youth leadership and advocacy of their reproductive health priorities.
In the United States, we analyze and assess data on children’s well-being.
The KIDS COUNT project is a national and state-by-state effort of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the status of children in the United States. It includes the annual KIDS COUNT Data Book and a KIDS COUNT Data Center. PRB has played an instrumental role in the KIDS COUNT Data Book since 1990, providing feedback on the design and measurement of the KIDS COUNT index of child well-being and compiling the data presented in the Data Book. We have also produced more than 150 national- and state-level tables on the well-being of children and families for the KIDS COUNT Data Center.
Internationally, we measure youth’s health risk factors and promote young people’s reproductive health.
Our research and analysis cover such topics as noncommunicable diseases, the effect of unhealthy life habits such as use of opioids and tobacco, trends in HIV/AIDS, Zika, and more.
We look beyond the numbers to understand youth’s reproductive health and development status and assess and compare the political environments and social dynamics that impact their lives. Using narratives that link hard statistics with young people’s lived realities increases policymakers’ appreciation of the diverse challenges this generation faces and improves the program responses required to meet their contraceptive and reproductive health needs. In these ways, PRB helps build the evidence base to inform effective policies and programs.
Learn more about our work with youth and their reproductive health.