Family planning pilot projects in Africa : review and synthesis

The substantive focus is on family planning projects but attention is also given to related health interventions. Part I of the paper summarizes major findings in terms of seven major program approaches of special interest to African planners: community based distribution, integrated programs, social marketing, traditional midwives, postpartum programs, incentive programs and programs with a special focus on urban populations. In a section summarizing lessons learned, the author emphasizes that active outreach services may be most appropriate in Africa. Lessons to be considered in choosing program options are discussed although it is pointed out that settings for family planning experiments conducted in sub-Saharan Africa have yet to produce useful cost data for the analysis of the cost effectiveness of alternative delivery systems. An extensive annex provides summary description of the dates, institutional base, research design, principal results and pertinent remarks for each of the projects reviewed, organized by country and program type. (Author abstract)