Family Planning in Developing Countries: An Unfinished Success Story

Abstract

Commentators in several prominent US publications have recently declared that the population explosion is over and concluded that population growth is no longer a serious policy issue. On the surface one might believe that the global decline in fertility rates is ample evidence that high rates of population growth are no longer of concern and that both focus upon and investment in family planning programs around the world can be abandoned. The truth is however that even though the level of global fertility has declined so sharply the US and other donor countries still need to invest in overseas population assistance programs especially family planning. Although the rate of growth has been declining since the 1960s total global population size is growing annually by approximately 80 million people. Almost all of this growth is in developing countries in many of which fertility rates remain high. High fertility can impose costly burdens upon developing nations. Voluntary family planning programs have been very effective in meeting the demand for contraception and therefore helping developing nations to reduce high rates of fertility. The authors explain why family planning programs are still needed in the current context of an ongoing population explosion.