Family Planning Programs: The Clients' Perspective. World Bank Staff Working Papers No. 676 and Population and Development Series No. 1.

Lowering fertility will require both a reduction in desired family size and provision of family planning services that respond to clients' needs. The World Fertility Survey and the Contraceptive Prevalence Survey found sizable groups of women with an "unmet need" for contraception. Investigators have also found evidence of unanswered need among other groups, including adolescents and men. The gap between fertility preferences and contraceptive behavior is explained in terms of the objective and subjective costs of fertility regulation to people. Public and private family planning programs in many parts of the developing world have succeeded in reducing the costs of fertility regulation to clients through innovations in service delivery. The persistence of unmet need in many countries calls for more research into the reasons for unanswered need and the cost- effectiveness of service innovations to satisfy it. Eight pages of references and a listing of related publications from the World Bank are included. (Author/CFR)