The Evaluation of Family Planning [Abridged

Abstract

The problems of measuring the consequences of family planning often called are many. Evaluation of a family planning program includes studying the success it has had in preventing unwanted births its effects on the well-being of the family the way the program is handled and the measurement of the demographic consequences such as the reduction of the birthrate. The present paper is concerned with the measurement of births averted which is one way an evaluation can be made. For a valid evaluation of a family planning program there has to be accurate records of the characteristics of acceptors the techniques used and the length of time a method is used. Also there have to be sophisticated methods to analyze the data collected. One of the problems of assessing the effects of a program is that women who come to such clinics do not constitute a random sample in terms of the timing of their entry and in terms of their level of risk. These women also usually have higher fertility rates than the average of the population in general. One way of trying to overcome such problems would be the usage of matched pairs in the study design. The author states that he has been engaged in research into the possibility of using computer simu lation experiments to answer these questions. At present the author is applying these methods to the evaluation of the program in Mauritius.