Effort and achievement in national family planning programmes
Ross, J.A.; Mauldin, W.P.
World Health Forum 15(3): 251-257
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0251-2432 PMID: 7945753 Document Number: 499925
New data show that national family planning programmes have made impressive progress in the last 25 years. In the early 1950s, India established the first national family planning programme and set up the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Fertility rates have been reduced dramatically. In the 1990s, greater achievements will be called for. New contraceptive technology had made mass action programmes feasible. Analysis of the programmes and their effects is needed. Thirty indices were used to measure the efforts made in these programmes and questionnaires were sent to experts on 100 developing countries with populations of over one million. The total number of points awarded, expressed as a percentage of 120, is termed the Programme Effort (PE) score. The indices fall into four groups. The first three cover activities taking place in the areas of policy support, service provision and record keeping. The fourth refers to the resultant overall availability of fertility control methods. Increases in contraceptive use in the developing world must now come from countries where conditions are less favourable. Separating all developing countries into those above and below the 60% level of contraceptive use, those below it must increase their numbers of users by nearly 75% during the decade if the United Nations fertility projections are likely to be met. These countries include difficult cases like Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zaire, as well as some such as Bangladesh and India. Programmes have grown more in number, coverage, scope and strength than could have been foreseen 25 years ago.