Community-based distribution programme in Zimbabwe
Zinanga, A.
Family planning for life experiences and challenges for the 1990s Papers presented at the Conference on Management of Family Planning Programmes, Harare, Zimbabwe, 1-7 October 1989: 37-44
1990
Document Number: 348830
The Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council's (ZNFPC) community-based distribution programme (CBD) was set up in 1976. At present, the programme has some 668 distributors, 68 group leaders, 8 senior educators and a chief. The CBDs are deployed in primarily under-served rural populations and the catchment areas cover almost two million people (29% of the rural population). It is estimated that some 380 000 women of child-bearing age live within the catchment area, and CBD coverage within this area is estimated at two-thirds of women in union. It is concluded that the programme has proved to be the major outreach mechanism for providing family planning services in Zimbabwe and that over the last few years it has been able to take family planning to the less advantaged, rural populations. The CBD network has played a key role in the country's impressively high levels of contraceptive knowledge, acceptance and use, even among rural and uneducated peoples. Overall, knowledge of family planning is reported to be over 85%, while contraceptive prevalence has increased from 14% in 1982 to 36% in 1988. However, much more still needs to be done in terms of expanding the programme adequately to cover all populations and extending the range of methods to include easier, more long-term ones.