Five years after the historic London Summit in 2012, the Population Council joined policymakers, donors, and advocates from around the world as they renewed their commitments and reviewed progress toward the Family Planning 2020 goals to ensure more women and girls around the world can plan their families and their futures. At the end of the week, more than 60 countries, private companies, and partner organizations committed to accelerating progress for family planning.

The Population Council produces two high-impact peer-reviewed journals: Population and Development Review (PDR) and Studies in Family Planning (SFP). Over the next few weeks, we are highlighting the top 10 most downloaded articles of 2016 for each journal. The topics explored in these papers highlight the diversity of research published in both journals on critical global health and development issues. PDR authors investigated population-related questions and policies on immigration, gender, family, marriage, fertility, and mortality. In Studies, researchers examined trends in unintended pregnancies, abortion, and contraceptive use; the evolution of China’s one-child policy; the effects of Haiti’s earthquake on women’s reproductive options, and more.   

The Population Council congratulates Board member Kaye Wellings for her conferment as a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. As a Fellow, Professor Wellings joins a distinguished body of over 1,100 academics and practitioners who have made significant contributions to social science.

The Population Council congratulates Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for his election as the new Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health (2005-2012) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012-2016). He will become the first person from Africa to lead the agency.

Kenya was among the countries honored last week during the World Health Organization's annual World Health Assembly for its contributions to enhancing respectful maternity care. The celebration, hosted by the East, Central and Southern African Health Community, followed years of research, partnership, and advocacy spearheaded by the Population Council.

On May 22, 2017, the Population Council will continue its long-standing commitment to reducing preventable maternal deaths from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, by co-sponsoring the first-ever World Preeclampsia Day. 

Last week FP2020, the global partnership dedicated to empowering women to access high-quality, voluntary family planning, announced new members to its Reference Group, which provides strategic direction to the partnership.

The Population Council mourns the passing of David Rockefeller, a visionary philanthropist and long-time supporter of the Population Council. 

Family planning programs have traditionally assumed that women are responsible for contraceptive use, so that men's job is to support them or at least get out of the way.

But a new recently published analysis "Are Men Well Served by Family Planning Programs" (Reproductive Health) by the Evidence Project found that adolescent boys and men also have a desire for sexual and reproductive health information and services. When information and services are made available they respond with greater contraceptive use. But they aren't very well served by existing programs.

In times of political turbulence, it is often hard to turn away from the breaking news to focus on bedrock understandings and long-range goals.

No matter what political announcements and policy shifts arise, we are still accountable to 225 million women and girls who want to delay, space or prevent a pregnancy and deserve access to voluntary family planning information, services and supplies.