Changing Fertility, Child Mortality and Contraceptive Prevalence Rates in Bangladesh: Effects of Disaster Risk Reduction and Family Planning Programs

Abstract

Bangladesh is densely populated and vulnerable to climatic, natural, human-made, and biological disasters. Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to cyclones, floods, drought, and temperature-related events. Disasters affect the well-being of the population of the country in many ways, while the effects are unevenly distributed across regions and population subgroups. Child mortality, total fertility, and contraceptive prevalence rates are not equally distributed across different regions. Existing population policy and family planning programs have made efforts to address the regional disparities. However, the role of disaster risk reduction and family planning programs in changing these rates remains unexplored. This research uses a mixed methods approach (quantitative and qualitative) to collect diverse information to understand how disaster risk reduction and family planning programs can help change geographical disparities in fertility, child mortality, and contraceptive prevalence rates. Primary data were collected through household surveys (N = 544) from married women aged 18–49 years with at least one child living with their husbands, and key-informant interviews with stakeholders (N = 8) in 2019–2020. This research found that disaster risk reduction and family planning programs can change fertility, improve child mortality, and contraceptive prevalence rates. Moreover, disaster risk reduction and family planning programs were more active and effective in the cyclone-hit village, where fertility and child mortality were lower, along with higher contraceptive access and use. It is crucial to ensure that these programs actively function in the targeted resource-constrained areas, and they are able to collaborate effectively to reduce regional disparities in those rates.