CONTENTS

         Chapters
  1. Thirty Years of Family Planning Programs
  2. Family Planning Demand
  3. Contraceptive Access
  4. Choice of Contraceptive Methods
  5. Client-Centered Quality
  6. Communication
  7. Well-Trained Providers
  8. Program Leadership and Strategic Management
  9. Research and Evaluation
  10. Political Commitment
  11. Financial Resources

HIGHLIGHTS

Population Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-4012, USA


Volume XXII, Number 2
August, 1994
 Financial Resources
10 Well-funded family planning programs accomplish more and accomplis it better.
Financial support is crucial to the success of family planning programs. Experience shows that the funding level helps determine the extent of progress toward the ideal of universally available contraception, with a variety of service delivery approaches, and a wide range of methods (84 , 176 ). In reality, however, many programs today have too little money to meet the current demand for services.

Virtually all family planning programs seek to make contraceptives available to clients either free of charge or at easily affordable prices. In developing countries as a whole, contraceptive users pay only about 10% of the total cost of family planning. International donor agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), pay about 15%. Since the early days of family planning in developing countries, financial and technical assistance from USAID has played a major role in providing access to contraceptive information, supplies, training, and services (17). Still, developing-country governments pay about 75% of family planning costs (93 , 192). (See Population Reports, Paying for Family Planning, Series J, No. 39, November 1991.)

Government and Donor Commitment

The financial support that a government commits to family planning is a measure of its political commitment. Allocating money in the national budget makes an even stronger—and more consequential—statement of support for family planning than adopting a population policy or making speeches exhorting people to use family planning. Although most governments officially support family planning, funding for family planning programs averages less than 1% of developing-country budgets, according to the United Nations Population Fund (176 ). While in some cases family planning is a substantial share of a country's health budget, other expenditures consume far more resources. Military spending, for example, averages 19% of total developing-country budgets (93 ).

Government budgetary support and financial support from international donors work together to multiply total family planning program resources. Bangladesh is an example (23). Both the Government of Bangladesh and international donors have dramatically increased financial support to the national family planning program over the past 20 years. The government commitment rose from US$7 million in 1972-73 to $41 million in 1982-83 and to $100 million in 1992-93 (8). Support from international donors rose from about $55 million in 1987-88 to about $100 million in 1990-91, most of it from USAID and the World Bank (158).

Often, donor support acts as a catalyst to government action. For example, in Kenya donor financing since 1983, including some US$60 million from USAID, has enabled Kenya's national family planning program to back up its policy commitment to family planning with expanded and improved services, which have made possible the rapid rise in contraceptive prevalence (38).

While donor support has played an important role in providing family planning to millions of people, donors could be playing a greater role. "Family planning successes have been bought with a small slice of the development dollar," a World Bank report observes (21 ). In 1990 population assistance by the 18 major donors constituted just 1.2% of de- velopment assistance, a smaller share than in the 1970s (110 ).


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