Analyzing family planning expenditure in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background The study conducts a family planning spending assessment to identify the resource gap for attaining family planning goals of Bangladesh’s 4th Health, Population, and Nutrition Sector Program (HPNSP). This study is motivated by the paucity of published literature on tracking family planning spending, especially in the Asian context. The study aims at tracking family planning spending from government sources by the agents, providers, service categories, and inputs of family planning services in Bangladesh. Methods We utilized a modified version of the National AIDS Spending Assessment (NASA) methodology to track family planning spending incurred by the government during the fiscal year 2018-19 (July 2018 to June 2019) and the equal period of 2019-20, focusing on the contraceptives. Results The total family planning expenditures were US$262.90 million and US$229.00 million in the fiscal year 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. The Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) managed a major share of the available family planning funds (93.4% and 90.1%, for two investigated years), while the Upazila Family Planning Office (UFPO) acted as the primary service provider, with over half of the resources spent. Salaries and allowances constituted the largest share of all costs (60.6% and 61.0%), while monitoring, evaluation and research amounted to an almost negligible share. Conclusions The findings of this study warrant an increase in the family planning funds to reduce the unmet need and discontinuation of the current family planning methods. Future studies should explore the whole gamut of family planning spending by including the share of development partners, NGOs, and out of pocket payments.