Population
Health
Well-Being
Malawi Family Planning Study (MFPS)
Micro studies that look at how interventions that aim to improve health can have downstream impacts.
Quick Facts
Location
Lilongwe, Malawi
Research Type
A randomized controlled trial following 2,143 women over more than six years (baseline 2016, four survey waves to date)
Lead Organization
Mahesh Karra (Columbia/PopFam) and David Canning (Harvard University)
Partners
IDinsight and AFIDEP are prospective consortium collaborators as we seek to build and expand this trial in the next phase
The Specifics
What we are doing
What are doing
We're testing whether removing practical barriers to family planning - counseling and information, free transportation to a high-quality clinic, and financial reimbursement for services and side effects - increases contraceptive use and improves downstream health and economic outcomes for women and their children.
What We Learned
Learnings
The intervention increased postpartum contraceptive use and long-acting method use, and meaningfully reduced the risk of short birth intervals (getting pregnant again within two years). A later survey wave also found benefits for children's health and cognitive development, and improvements in women's sexual well-being and satisfaction.
The Impact
Impact
Main findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and the child health findings in Demography. The study has directly informed discussions with Malawi's Ministry of Health and Reproductive Health Directorate on postpartum family planning service delivery, and our replication data is publicly posted on Harvard Dataverse for others to build on.
Research & Publications
14 August 2020
The Effect of Improved Access to Family Planning on Postpartum Women: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Author(s)
Canning, Karra
24 March 2022
The Causal Effect of a Family Planning Intervention on Women's Contraceptive Use and Birth Spacing
Author(s)
Mahesh Karra, Dan Maggio, Muqi Guo, Bagrey Ngwira, and David Canning
1 October 2024
1 October 2024
Family Planning and Children's Human Capital: Experimental Evidence from Urban Malawi
Replication Data for: The causal effect of a family planning intervention on women’s contraceptive use and birth spacing
2019
Assessing the role of women’s autonomy and acceptability of intimate-partner violence in maternal health-care utilization in 63 low- and middle-income countries
June 16, 2026 - Working Paper
Family Planning, Women’s Employment, and Household Labor Supply