Securing the future of SRHR financing, a blog series: Using evidence to guide better decisions

Concerned about how shrinking budgets and shifting priorities continue to limit access to essential Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) services, this Universal Health Coverage (UHC) day, the WHO–UNFPA SRHR-UHC Learning by Sharing Portal is launching a short blog series unpacking practical tools that policymakers and partners can use to strengthen sustainable SRHR financing – part of the backbone of UHC.

This blogpost’s spotlight? Making SRHR financing visible, comparable and clearly linked to outcomes.

When resources are limited, decision-makers rarely react to broad calls for “more funding.” What does get their attention are clear investment cases: costed, concrete, and grounded in data that show SRHR as a contributor to national development, a cornerstone of universal health care.

Sustainable SRHR financing begins with knowing where resources are, how they are used, and what impact they create.

Tools to track spending and how to use them:

This is where the Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW) annual Donors Delivering for SRHR report becomes an important tool.

By tracking how Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to SRHR year after year, the report helps governments, donors and civil society understand how much financing exists and how it changes over time. ODA refers to government aid provided by high-income countries to support the development and welfare of low- and middle-income countries, and it remains a key source of external funding for SRHR programmes. This visibility is essential for:

• identifying gaps and fluctuations that may put essential services at risk;
• supporting long-term planning, especially for countries transitioning toward greater domestic financing;
• enabling decision-makers to see where investments align with national priorities and where they do not.

This provides a foundation for translating financing into real-world outcomes: who is reached, where services improve and how SRHR contributes to broader goals such as education, women’s economic participation and overall system resilience.

Recent research shows that effective decision processes draw on multiple forms of evidence, from financial data to feasibility, equity and acceptability assessments, depending on the policy question at hand. This reinforces the value of tools like the Donors Delivering for SRHR report; they make financing patterns visible, comparable and grounded in credible evidence, which can then be combined with other policy-relevant information to inform decisions about how to sustain and strengthen SRHR within UHC efforts.

Ms. Nitya George, Health Policy Researcher at Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW) notes: “When we think about making the case for SRHR financing, one of the most effective strategies is to show that it doesn’t stand alone. SRHR is interconnected with nearly every health outcome, from reducing maternal and child mortality, to tackling HIV, to enabling broader universal health coverage. And the impact stretches further into education, gender equality, and sustainable economic growth.”

While the DSW report shows how much is invested, Guttmacher’s Adding It Up initiative helps countries understand what those investments mean in practice.

Adding It Up examines the need for, impact of and costs associated with fully investing in sexual and reproductive health services are in low- and middle-income countries. These services enable individuals to make informed decisions about whether and when to have children, experience safe pregnancy and delivery, support the health of their newborns and maintain their sexual and reproductive well-being.

Its rigorous evidence base demonstrates that investing in SRHR saves lives, reduces costs and improves health.

The Adding It Up data can be accessed through two tools:

• The Family Planning Investment Impact Calculator helps advocates, governments and funders demonstrate the benefits of investing in contraceptive services, estimating impacts like the number of users served, unintended pregnancies and abortions prevented, women’s and girls’ lives saved and health system cost savings.
• Individual country profiles offer model-based estimates on unintended pregnancy and abortion, providing a snapshot of contraceptive use, maternal and newborn health access, the health impacts of meeting reproductive needs and the investments necessary to maintain and scale-up sexual and reproductive healthcare.

As countries adapt to a changing funding landscape, tools like the Donors Delivering for SRHR report and Adding It Up can help anchor decisions in transparency, accountability and long-term thinking.

In the weeks to come, the Learning by Sharing Portal will continue highlighting practical approaches, including advocacy strategies and innovative financing mechanisms, that countries are using to protect and expand SRHR within UHC efforts.

Stay tuned for the next blog on how targeted advocacy approaches can strengthen this foundation.