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Emergency Contraception in Bangladesh
An estimated 1.2 million unplanned pregnancies
occur in Bangladesh each year. Although contraceptives are widely
available in Bangladesh, until recently there has been no emergency
method in the public sector for preventing pregnancies following
unprotected sex. By February 2007, thanks to technical assistance from
the Population Council in collaboration with the United Nations
Population Fund, the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
had trained all of the approximately 45,000 providers in the National
Family Planning Program in emergency contraception, and health-care
facilities were stocking educational brochures and emergency
contraceptive pills (ECPs). A management information system to monitor
program implementation and use of ECPs is now in place. At present, an
estimated 20,000 ECPs are being distributed every month in this country
of 162 million.The “Emergency Contraceptive Pills: South East Asia
Regional Training Manual,” developed as part of the follow-up to the
successful Council-led three-year pilot project that tested the
introduction of ECPs in Bangladesh, is being used in more than ten other
countries. The manual and a companion slide show are available for free
at
www.popcouncil.org/frontiers/projects_pubs/topics/SLR/ECP_TrainingManual.html.
“Enhancing Utilization of Research Findings:
Scaling Up ECP Program to the National Level in Bangladesh” was one of
the more than 180 projects fielded in 2006 by the Council’s Frontiers in
Reproductive Health program, which is funded by the United States Agency
for International Development.(Return to issue contents)
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