Family planning is increasingly being recognized as a critical intervention to improve health of women and spur socio-economic development.Unintended pregnancy remains a significant cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in many low and middle income countries, and yet up to 222 million women have an unmet need for modem contraception.WHO regards access to modern contraception as a fundamental right to every woman.Hand-in-hand with this right is a need to expand family planning options, with a view to widen choices available to women in different contexts and meet diverse needs.Challenges that confront researchers is the need for continued development of contraceptive methods that most ably meet the needs of women and couples and contraception at different reproductive stages, and research on the most optimal contraceptive service delivery, coverage and access.In addition, there is need for continued research on the safety and efficacy of new and existing methods.WHO supports contraceptive research and development studies on dual protection from unintended pregnancy and HIV/STI and on long-acting methods..The paper will review research, policy and programmatic advances and options for enhancing efforts to reduce unmet need.