How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place

by Bjørn Lomborg

In the last two decades, a growing body of research has substantially strengthened the case for family-planning programs—documenting, for example, the significant effects of these programs toward reducing fertility, increasing education for mothers, improving women’s general health and longer-term survival, increasing female labor force participation and earnings, as well as child health. However, the attempt to obtain reasonably reliable estimates of both the benefits and costs of these programs remains very challenging. Kohler draws on recent estimates to find that expanding family-planning services to all women with unmet needs—215 million women—would require an additional annual expenditure of $3.6 billion, bringing the total annual cost to $6.7 billion. Three-quarters of these additional expenses would be required for program and other systems costs related to expanding family planning services, while only 16 percent would be required for the supplies and contraceptive commodities. The benefits are large. Reduced fertility, increased child spacing, and possible reductions in unwanted fertility are likely to reduce infant and maternal mortality, each year leading to 150,000 fewer maternal deaths and 600,000 fewer motherless children.

Why planned parenthood is good in terms of climate prospects