Anna Karina
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| | Family Planning in Afghanistan (2nd Jul 09 at 3:05pm UTC) | | The Afghan Ministry of Public Health recently published a report which stated that although family planning services are now available from 90% of the country's health-care facilities, use amongst rural women is remains low at 15%. There is much speculation about why this is the case: many argue that it has to do with the stigma that surrounds contraception and use this as a platform to make the case for greater programmes in sexual education and women's empowerment. It may also be the case, however, that the numbers here do not tell the whole story...
90% provision of family planning services is high, but it says little about how many health care facilities exist, and what percentage of Afghan's population they provide for. Most probably, very few of these facilities cater for small, remote, rural communities, and so leave the majority of women in these areas isolated from health care provision.
Thus, there are two very different policy prescriptions to be drawn from the same simplistic numbers. How this plays out is a delicate issue - Afghanistan currently has the highest fertility rate in Asia, and if this is sustained the population is set to reach 56 million by 2050. Another good example of the uncertainty we face in 'managing development'... | |
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