Photograph: Spratt, A (2016). Unsplash, Group of children, accessed: 17.04.2024.The returns on family planning
2 June 2026
Three new investment cases, co-authored by Genesis and published in the African Journal of Reproductive Health, make a compelling case: spending on family planning, maternal health, and child nutrition in Gabon, Chad, and Guinea saves lives and yields extraordinary economic returns.
Genesis, a specialist advisory firm that works at the intersection of data, policy and implementation, helped produce the studies in partnership with the governments of Gabon, Chad and Guinea, and UNFPA.
In Gabon, scaling up family planning and maternal health services between 2025 and 2030 could prevent more than 15,000 unintended pregnancies and avert over 340 maternal deaths. Failing to act could cost the economy USD 780 million.
“We show that investing in women's health is not just a critical public health priority, but one of the smartest financial decisions governments can make,” says Elise Smith, a Genesis manager and co-author of the Gabon study.
In Chad, which has some of the world's highest fertility and maternal mortality rates, the numbers are even more striking. Expanding family planning by 2050 could avert 186,000 maternal deaths and prevent 23 million cases of stunting, generating USD 180 billion in health savings and productivity gains.
In Guinea, high rates of maternal and child death remain a pressing challenge. Scaling up priority interventions could avert around 334,000 healthy years of life lost to early death or illness, generating a significant return for every dollar spent by 2030, increasing to over 110 dollars per dollar by 2050.
"In Guinea, doing nothing isn't neutral, it's expensive. We're talking billions lost in preventable deaths and missed economic gains," says Loveness Kekana and co-author of the Guinea study.
Short-term financing gaps remain. But the studies argue that domestic resource mobilisation, smarter spending, and innovative financing can bridge them. That is where Genesis comes in. The firm does not stop at publishing numbers. It works alongside governments and partners to turn findings into budgets, policies and programmes, helping countries move from evidence to action at scale.