Integration of an essential services package (ESP) in child and reproductive health and family planning with a micro-credit program for poor women: experience from a pilot project in rural Bangladesh
Amin, R.; St Pierre, M.; Ashraf Ahmed; Runa Haq
World Development Oxford 29(9): 1611-1621
2001
DOI: 10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00055-9Document Number: 206900
In early 1992, a two-phased pilot project, initially integrating a micro-credit programme for poor women with a family planning and expanded programme of immunization (in the first phase) and subsequently and incrementally with an essential services package (ESP) in reproductive and maternal and child health (in the second phase), was initiated in rural Bangladesh. Data on the project show that there has been a significant increase in contraceptive use and a decline in fertility since the initiation of the first phase of the project. There also has been an increase in the dissemination of information on, and utilization of, ESP medical technologies in the intervention community at large.