USAID's Family Planning Services
Because of USAID and its programs that maximize access to quality family planning and reproductive healthcare, more couples and individuals in the developing world have been able to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children. Since the inception of its family planning program in 1965, USAID has been a leader in the global effort to protect human health, provide couples with voluntary family planning services, and to stabilize world population growth.
Family planning programs:
- Provide modern methods of contraception to hundreds of millions of couples annually
- Save the lives of tens of thousands of mothers and children and enhance their health
and well-being
- Slow population growth and reduce poverty
USAID is unique for its extensive on-the-ground field presence. Agency Missions in over 60 countries serve as the point of direct contact while USAID?s technical staff works with U.S. and host-country partners to design family planning programs centered on clients? needs and expressed desires. All initiatives are cost-effective, promote quality, maximize access, and achieve sustainable public health impact.
Program Assistance is Offered in Many Areas
USAID-funded programs have trained more than half a million medical professionals and community-based health workers. This alone has helped increase access to and improve the quality of both family planning services and client education, especially for people living in hard-to-reach rural communities.
USAID has developed a global system for the delivery of contraceptive supplies, in which numerous countries and donors rely on the Agency?s contraceptive supply forecasting system. This system is designed to ensure availability and contraceptive choices year-round.
USAID helps developing country professionals collect and use data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and other surveillance instruments to plan and evaluate their programs and to develop and implement policies that facilitate access to and quality of family planning and reproductive health care.
USAID pioneered contraceptive social marketing programs and supports innovative mass media and public information campaigns that educate consumers about important health issues ranging from family planning and contraception to maternal and child health, to prevention of HIV/AIDS.
USAID?s research and development efforts have led to significant advances in developing new and improved contraceptive pills, IUDs, and female controlled barrier methods that can protect against sexually transmitted infections. USAID also uses research to improve understanding of client needs in order to advance the quality of services.
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) increase the quality and credibility of reproductive health information for policy, planning, and program evaluation through analysis of family planning issues at all levels. DHS surveys include statistics on maternal health and mortality, fertility, contraceptive use, HIV/AIDS, child health, and safe motherhood.
Facts and Figures
Since 1965, the use of modern family planning methods in the developing world has more than quadrupled ? from less than 10 percent to 39 percent today.
In the 28 countries with the largest USAID-sponsored programs, the average number of children per family has dropped from more than six to less than four.
Researchers estimate that without organized family planning programs, there would be a half billion more people in the world today.
USAID Response
More than 200 million women in the developing world will enter their reproductive years during the next decade. To meet their needs and increase the impact of its programs, USAID has set the following priorities:
Expand USAID?s global initiative, Maximizing Access and Quality of Care (MAQ). MAQ identifies and addresses barriers to client access and works to improve family planning service delivery standards and quality. Additional assistance is essential in such areas as provider training, service management and supervision, client education, and increasing the choice of available contraceptive methods.
Increase women and couple?s access to services. More than 380 million women, nearly 60% of couples in the developing world (excluding China), want to limit or space their births. Yet more than 120 million of these women do not use family planning or other reproductive health care because they lack accurate information and have poor access to quality services. Given the AIDS pandemic, it is especially necessary to reach women who face a high risk of HIV/AIDS infection. To increase access to and quality of reproductive health care, USAID?s programs train health care professionals, ensure adequate physical facilities, commodities and equipment while integrating family planning with other health care programs.
Broaden access to a broad range of reproductive health care. Women want and need access to reproductive health programs. USAID works to link its family planning programs with other community-based efforts to improve maternal and child health, prevent HIV/AIDS, and enhance women?s status.
Strengthen post abortion care. Improving treatment for complications of spontaneous and induced abortion not only saves lives, but is a proven and highly effective tool for providing women with the family planning information and services they need to avoid repeat abortions.
Provide special programs for the largest cohort of youth in history. More than 1 billion young people are entering their reproductive years and another 2 billion are right behind them. Too many lack basic information about reproductive and sexual health and are not being adequately served by existing programs. USAID is working to meet the challenge of establishing patterns of informed and responsible reproductive decision-making early in life. Delaying sexual activity and first pregnancy, and increasing responsible practices, including abstinence and condom use, will not only protect young people?s health and quality of life, but contribute to the health and prosperity of the world?s future population.
Help prevent HIV/AIDS transmission. Further incorporating education and counseling to promote condom use and other HIV/AIDS prevention messages in family planning programs, especially countries with medium or high HIV/AIDS prevalence, should contribute to the fight to stop the spread of the epidemic. Currently USAID works to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections, promote private-sector condom marketing, and mounts intensive communication campaigns to promote safer sexual behaviors. Research also shows that adding family planning programs to the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) can greatly reduce the number of orphans while saving the lives of thousands of women and children.
Prepared June 2004
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