Using a Behavioral Economics Approach for Family Planning

In light of both ambitious global family planning (FP) goals and the success of social and behavior change (SBC) programming in contributing to those goals, donors and implementers have been exploring ways to enhance the impact of behavior change interventions. SBC refers to activities or interventions that seek to understand and facilitate change in behaviors and the social norms and environmental determinants that drive them. SBC interventions are grounded in a number of different disciplines, including behavioral economics (BE). This brief highlights opportunities and recommendations for using BE to influence positive FP outcomes based on the existing evidence. There is a companion brief examining another approach of interest: human-centered design.