The unmet need for family planning

Abstract

Bangladesh ­ 24% of women do not want pregnancy but are not using contraception. About a quarter of all women want to stop having children or to postpone the next pregnancy for at least two years, but are not using contraceptives. Such women are defined by DHS surveys as having an unmet need' for family planning. Unmet need does not necessarily mean that family planning services are not available. It may also mean that women lack information, or that the quality of the services on offer does not inspire the necessary confidence, or that women themselves have little say in the matter. Nonetheless, where family planning services are considered to be strong ­ as in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, or Viet Nam ­ unmet demand is less than 15%. In eight of the sub­Saharan African countries surveyed, unmet need rises to between 30% and 42%. The level of unmet demand says little about either overall demand or the level of contraceptive use. In both Botswana and Uganda, for example, unmet demand is estimated at 27%: but in Botswana the overall demand is 60% of which 33% is met, whereas in Uganda the overall demand is 32% of which only 5% is being met.