The President’s budget request for fiscal year 2016 released yesterday is a mixed bag for international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) program funding. While the request for the main bilateral account that supports FP/RH activities is identical to last year’s number—and the proposed contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is only marginally lower—the total request is just slightly higher than what Congress appropriated in December. This is a disappointing proposal.

The total bilateral and multilateral request for international FP/RH for FY 2016 is $612.6 million, including $538 million in the Global Health Programs account, $39.6 million in Economic Support Funds, and $35 million for a U.S. contribution to UNFPA from the International Organizations & Programs account.

The President’s FY 2016 request is a mere $2.6 million—less than half a percent—higher than the current appropriated level, enacted as part of the FY 2015 “cromnibus” in mid-December. It is also $31.7 million less than the President proposed last year—a robust FY 2015 request that was viewed at the time as symbolic of the priority the administration attached to FP/RH, even as other global health sectors faced flat or slightly lower request levels.

The lower overall request level for FY 2016 is almost entirely the result of a dramatic, but explainable, drop in the amount of Economic Support Funds (ESF) allocated for FP/RH activities in a small number of strategically and politically important countries. The ESF level of $39.6 million is $31.4 million less than the President’s FY 2015 request of $71 million and $11.4 million less than the current appropriated level of approximately $51 million. The large reduction is apparently being justified by the existence of a large amount of unexpended funds from prior year appropriations in the “pipeline” for FP/RH activities in Pakistan.

The good news is that the request for most of the developing nations where the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operates was not reduced. Nevertheless, the request falls far short of the $1 billion that is the U.S. fair share of total global expenditures required to address the unmet need of 225 million women in the developing world who would like to prevent pregnancy but lack modern contraception. In addition, the request lowballs a key element of USAID’s new initiative on ending preventable child and maternal deaths, making its ambitious goals for reducing deaths of women and children by 2020 even more difficult to realize.

The following table provides details on the President’s budget request in comparison to prior year appropriations and requests: