Worldwide, nearly 85% of people are affiliated with a religious faith, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Virtually all faith traditions support the concept of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy, including access to the means for spacing pregnancies.

It is often assumed that religion has a negative influence on family planning (FP), yet virtually all faith traditions support the concept of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy. Interfaith support for FP exists, as shown in the Interfaith Declaration to Improve Family Health and Wellbeing, which was signed by a committee of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist leaders, to promote using their networks to promote healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies.

Key Messages

• Although it is often assumed that religion has a negative influence on family planning (FP), virtually all faith traditions support the concept of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.
• Given the growing evidence of the importance of religious leaders and faith-based organizations (FBOs) in shaping policy and reaching communities in support of FP, faith leaders play an important role in advocating for FP and increasing its uptake.
• FBOs are interested in expanding access to FP and increasing service delivery, yet governments, donors, and nongovernmental organizations give low priority to FBOs for financial, training, and commodity support of FP, resulting in a lack of services for underserved populations.
• Faith leaders become effective FP advocates with governments and donors through advocacy training, internal discussions to develop church positions on FP, technical information on FP, and evidence-based rationales for FP.