Practical pointers for conducting commercial sector family planning regulatory assessments

A thorough regulatory assessment will help identify which strategies will be most appropriate. Such an assessment should examine five areas: regulations that constrain contraceptive options; tax and import policies; advertising and promotion regulations; other regulations that affect the commercial sector; and restrictions on nonprofit organizations. The experience of USAID"s PROFIT project provides three lessons for conducting a regulatory assessment. First, develop a clear understanding of what existing regulations say and what they do not say. Second, look beyond the written laws and regulations to understand how they are actually implemented and practiced. Finally, determine whether regulatory reform can have a meaningful effect on the commercial sector role in family planning by carefully studying existing patterns of contraceptive provision and use and relating them to the existing regulatory structure. (Author abstract)