CONTENTS
Quality of Care
Situation Analysis: Assessing Family Planning and Reproductive
Health Services
The day-to-day functioning of family planning services can be difficult for program
managers to assess, but doing so is critical to program success. More than any written
plan or stated objective, the mundane details of service delivery reveal the quality of
care that clients receive. In 1989, the Population Council introduced a powerful tool to
aid managers in program evaluation. Called Situational Analysis, this research methodology
opened a new window on the ground floor of family planning programs. This article details
a comprehensive guide to Situation Analysis complied by Council staff,
The Situation
Analysis Approach to Assessing Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services: A
Handbook.
Contraceptive Development
The Two-rod Levonorgestrel Implant: A New Contraceptive Is
Approved
Women seeking protection from unwanted pregnancy will find no more effective contraceptive
than a new method developed at the Population Council: the two-rod levonorgestrel
implant. This safe, long-acting product was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for three years of use. The implant’s failure rate is among the lowest
ever registered for a contraceptive: two pregnancies per 1,000 users over a three-year
period.
Safe Abortion
Medical Abortion: Safe, Effective, and Acceptable to Women in
Developing Countries
Every year as many as 100,000 women die from unsafe abortion, 99 percent of them in
developing countries. Clinical trials conducted by the Population Council may help to
expand women’s options for safe abortion in these countries. The Council tested an
alternative to surgical abortion—medical abortion using the drugs mifepristone and
misoprostol—in China, Cuba, and India (countries where abortion is legal). The method
proved to be safe, effective, and acceptable to women in these developing countries.
Family Planning
Adopting Contraception in a Traditional African Society: Findings
from
Northern Ghana
As recently as 1994, modern contraceptives were a rarity in Kassena-Nankana, a rural
district of northern Ghana. That year, three villages in the district became the site of a
family planning pilot project; 15 months later, more than 250 women in these villages were
practicing contraception. What factors distinguished this group of "contraceptive
innovators" from women who adhered to traditional reproductive practices? A
Population Council paper, "The determinants of family planning innovation: A case-control
study of family planning acceptance in a traditional African society," explores this
question.
Demography
Explaining the Lag Between Mortality and Fertility Decline
Mortality and fertility rates typically decline as countries undergo development. In most
cases mortality falls first; then, after a lag, fertility declines. This pattern puzzles
demographers all the more so because it is inconsistent. A Population Council working
paper, "Learning and lags in mortality perception," explores this conundrum.
Medical Anthropology
Women's Health Perceptions and Reproductive Health: A Report from
the Middle East
The Population Council’s Cairo-based Reproductive Health Working Group uncovered high
levels of gynecological morbidity in Giza, a rural region of Egypt. The researchers were
alarmed not only by the prevalence of disease, but also by the fact that so much of it had
gone unreported and untreated prior to the study. "It was quite a jolt to realize
that, not only are many women suffering when they do not need to, but that they do not
think that they are entitled to better health." This article details a monograph on
the findings.
