Delivering solutions to keep young people in school
Outside of the family, schools are the main place where young people learn the skills they will need to succeed as adults. Education acts as a "social vaccine," protecting individuals from child marriage and unintended pregnancy, improving their health and later their children’s health. It gives them skills to earn a living when they reach adulthood. Education plays a major role in national economic development. The newest issue of Momentum describes Population Council efforts to improve the quality of schooling and to keep more children, especially girls, in school. (read Momentum)
Current News
Council Distinguished Scholar Anrudh Jain's "Hormonal contraception and HIV acquisition risk: Implications for individual users and public policies," published in Contraception and available for free download. While researchers continue to explore the relationship between hormonal contraception and HIV, Jain examines the individual and public policy implications of the potentially elevated risk of HIV acquisition among women who use depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) injectable contraception. The article offers a way to help program managers, providers, and individual women think about the potential implications of providing or using DMPA by considering both the risk of HIV acquisition and the risk of unwanted pregnancy involved in using various contraceptive methods. The Population Council is committed to using our biomedical, social science, and public health research to enhance the choice of technologies available to women for minimizing both the risk of unwanted pregnancies and the risk of acquiring HIV. (offsite link to article)
Population Council applauds FDA committee recommendation on PrEP for HIV prevention
The Population Council applauds the recommendation by an FDA advisory committee that emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF/FTC or Truvada) be approved for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection among sexually active adult men and women. “This represents an important step forward in providing additional HIV prevention options to women and men,” said vice president Naomi Rutenberg, who oversees the Council’s HIV and AIDS program. “The Council urges the FDA to follow the recommendation from its advisory committee and approve PrEP in order to support its safe and effective use.”
The Population Council confronts difficult issues facing people in the developing world, from stopping the spread of HIV to expanding contraceptive choices. We are developing vaginal and rectal microbicides to protect women and men against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In addition, the Council is developing combined microbicide/contraceptive products, which also provide protection against unintended pregnancy. Our comprehensive approach to microbicides development comprises all aspects of research, from the laboratory to the field, product introduction, and public education.
For more information about the committee’s recommendation, read The New York Times coverage (offsite link) and an article from the Associated Press (offsite link). For more information about the Council’s HIV prevention work, visit http://www.popcouncil.org/topics/microbicides.asp
The Council’s Benjamin Bellows presented his latest findings on reproductive health vouchers at the Family Planning and Results-Based Financing: Opportunities and Challenges on Monday, 21 May. This meeting was held at the Washington DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (offsite link). Bellows is leading a multinational effort to evaluate the success of reproductive health care vouchers in improving women’s access to maternal health and family planning services. The study is part of a larger Council project designed to generate evidence to help governments and partners improve voucher programs. Read more about the Population Council’s work to improve women’s lives.
Council research highlighted in new ICRW report. “Women’s demand for reproductive control: Understanding and addressing gender barriers” describes the barriers women face in defining and achieving their reproductive intentions and summarizes programmatic strategies and interventions that have been used to address these barriers. The report highlights two Population Council projects: the Navrongo Community Health and Family Planning project in Ghana and the Mainstreaming EC project in Kenya. (offsite link)
