It seems like most cost-effectiveness analyses always miss the largest potential benefit that family planning charities have.  They can avert births, which can effectively shift births out of regions with very high child mortality, like sub-Saharan Africa, into regions that have much lower child mortality.  By my estimates, this could make family planning charities like Lafiya Nigeria, Family Empowerment Media, and MSI Reproductive Choices a more cost-effective way to save the life of a child under 5 years old than any of GiveWell's top charities.

I asked one person about this who used to do development work in South Africa, and she said it is because it might be seen as an attempt by people with a Eugenics-based perspective to reduce the number of black people that are born.  But the fertility rate is so high in sub-Saharan Africa that quite a lot of births would need to be averted just to bring the fertility rate down to a level on par with the rest of the world, so I don't see why that would be a concern.

Does anyone know?