Tanzania Could See Big Returns on Family Planning Investments

April 23, 2018Let ’s not let another second, day, or year go by where we fail to address the demand for family planning in Tanzania.Providing contraception and reproductive health services to those who want them globally would cost $3.6 billion per year. But, according to 60 teams of economists and representatives from the United Nations, NGOs and private sector businesses,that investment would generate annual benefits around $432 billion.  That ’s a $120 return per dollar spent.  In fact, these teams ranked access to contraceptives as the second highest on a list of scenarios that could generate the highest returns on investment in international development today.Aside from the impressive returns, family planning significantly improves health and wellbeing.   In 2017, 3,840,000 women in Tanzania used a modern method of contraception. That’s an estimated1,054,000 unintended pregnancies, 313,000 unsafe abortions, and 3,000 maternal deaths averted.But Tanzania still faces some big family-planning challenges.According to theTanzania Demographic and Health Survey, the national modern contraceptive prevalence rate is 32% among married women. Sixty-one percent of married women ages 15-49 want to avoid pregnancy, but of these women, 22% are not currently using family planning (also known as unmet need), putting them at risk for unintended pregnancies. Among unmarried, sexually active women, the percentage of women who want to avoid pregnancy increases to 79% and unmet need ...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news