Estimated Modern Use: Employing A Service Statistics-Based Indicator to Monitor Family Planning Programs

Estimated Modern Use (EMU) is a novel, service statistics-based indicator designed to complement Couple Years of Protection (CYP) in assessing the scale of family planning use and the first widely used metric since CYPs. Developed by the Track20 project, EMU offers a population-based proportional metric that facilitates cross-country comparisons and temporal trend analysis. By leveraging existing family planning service statistics, EMU provides a more accessible and interpretable measure of contraceptive use. The associated SS-to-EMU tool used to calculate EMU incorporates rigorous data quality review mechanisms, including data visualizations and validated review processes, to enhance the reliability and utility of family planning data for decision-making. The standardization of EMU across countries and projects promotes its integration into routine data review practices, fostering a more comprehensive approach to family planning monitoring and evaluation. Since 2014, all countries that prepare annual estimates for the FP2030 global initiative utilize the SS to EMU tool, to assess data quality and produce EMU estimates. Moreover, the EMU serves as a valuable input for the Family Planning Estimation Tool (FPET), contributing to the refinement of modeled estimates of modern contraceptive prevalence. Since its introduction, EMU has gained widespread adoption at various levels, demonstrating its effectiveness in informing global, regional, and country-level monitoring efforts. Ongoing refinements to the EMU calculation further enhance its accuracy and utility as a supplementary data source for understanding contraceptive use patterns.