• Maximize access to good-quality services;
• Emphasize communication; and
• Focus on men as well as women.

Previous reviews of unmet need have reached similar conclusions. Based on CPS data, Ainsworth in 1985 recommended that programs make contraception more convenient to obtain, offer more contraceptive methods, and, using both mass media and counseling, provide accurate information about side effects and proper use of contraception. She also recommended that family planning services be offered together with maternal and child health services (3).

Ahn and colleagues in 1987 recommended that the South Korean national program reach the unmet need group by improving the range of contraceptive methods, making contraception more available and accessible, and—because lack of accurate information caused more unmet need than did lack of services—shifting some resources from service delivery to information, education, and communication (IEC). Because many in the unmet need group were pregnant unintentionally or had recently given birth, the researchers recommended developing postpartum family planning services, paying particular attention to women who have recently given birth (2).

In their 1995 study of reasons for unmet need, Bongaarts and Bruce recommend providing "access with quality" as the main program response. They emphasize improving people's knowledge of contraception and its side effects and involving men more (25). They also urge that programs pay more attention to the special needs of unmarried youth, who have been excluded from most measurement of unmet need and from most family planning program activity. They conclude that "programs can be more successful if they reach beyond the conventional boundaries of service to operate on the cultural and familial factors that limit voluntary contraceptive use" (25).