More funds for FP programmes urged

They said the government should allocate more funds for family planning programmes side by side allowing private sector in establishing contraceptive industries locally to minimise huge costs.

This observation was made at a workshop on 'Market Segmentation Analysis for Contraceptive Security' at a city hotel yesterday.

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The Deliver Bangladesh, a project of the USAID, organised the workshop, where a number of field level family planning officials share their experiences.

"The government should fund more in the family planning programmes as the donors' assistance is dwindling gradually," Nurul Hossain, chief of party of Deliver Bangladesh, said. The financial support from donors would become record low of Tk 300 core by 2010, he added.

As funds from the donor countries are shrinking, the government should take proper steps to meet the future demands and keep the population size within 180 million by 2018. This 180 million will reach up to 220 million by 2065 if the total fertility rate (TFR) can be kept at 2.2 from 3.3 by 2010.

Last year, a total of 219 million condoms, 112 million pills, 10 million injections and 0.2 million IUDs were bought to control births, sources said. The government has decided to put more emphasis on sterilisation or permanent methods like vasectomy and ligation alongside the temporary ones.

Susan Scribner of USAID said the government should charge money for contraceptives instead giving those free of cost, a proposal denied by the family planning officials. She also laid stress on reducing system loss in contraceptive distribution and taking measures to make contraceptive available to unmet groups.