This Guy Deserves a Medal: Leading Family Planning Efforts in Pakistan

A couple of years ago, I was traveling in the rural areas of Sindh Province in Pakistan and met a woman who had six children. Her resources were so meager that she had to feed her children in shifts – three on one day, and the other three the next day. It was heart-breaking to see. But it made me more convinced than ever of the importance of the work my colleagues and I are doing to provide Pakistani couples with options for healthy spacing and timing of births.

I live and promote family planning in Pakistan, where only 26% of married women use a modern method of family planning, dramatically lower than the 66% who use modern methods in my native Mexico. That’s lower than all our neighboring countries, except Afghanistan. Yet 20% of married women say they want contraception but cannot access it.

The Government of Pakistan has pledged to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) for modern methods from the 26% recorded in the 2012-13 Demographic and Health Survey to 55% by 2020. That would double the CPR in only eight years.

See original/source content: http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2015/08/Pakistan-A-Tough-but-Vital-Place-to-Do-Family-Planning#.VdcU4flVhBf