Engaging Faith Leaders in Family Planning

In sub-Saharan Africa, a 2006 survey found that people trust faith-based organizations more than they trust their own national governments (Tortora, 2007). As such, faith-based organizations and religious leaders have an immense opportunity to educate communities about healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP) and methods of family planning (FP).

This literature review concludes that the success of engaging faith leaders in family planning promotion supports the validity of this approach as one of several that are necessary to increase contraceptive use prevalence and decrease infant and maternal mortality in developing countries. The wealth of resources that have been developed to support these activities both highlight this validity and underscore the necessity of continued integration of faith leaders into programs to address unmet needs for family planning information and services.

Last modified: December 22, 2019

Language: English