The DHS Program

A Comparative Analysis of Unmet Need in Nepal (English) 

Document Type

Further Analysis

Publication Topic(s)

Family Planning, Fertility and Fertility Preferences, Maternal Health

Country(s)

Nepal

Survey

Nepal DHS, 2006

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Aryal, Ram Hari, Ram Sharan Pathak, Bhogendra Ray Dottel, and Prakash Dev Pant. 2008. A Comparative Analysis of Unmet Need in Nepal: A Further Analysis of the 2006 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 50. Calverton, Maryland, USA: Macro International

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Publication Date

May 2008

Publication ID

FA50

Abstract:

Family planning and maternal and child health services in Nepal are administered through stationary offices, mobile facilities, and door-to-door campaigns. Mobile facilities were introduced because of the remoteness of much of the population and the lack of local family planning facilities. Because most villagers were unwilling to come to family planning centers, the Nepal Family Planning and Maternal Child Health Board launched a door-to-door campaign to educate villagers about family planning and to distribute oral contraceptives and condoms. Four methods of family planning were initially introduced— sterilization, the IUD, pills, and condoms— and were offered by both the government and non-government sectors. Injectables were introduced in 1973 on an experimental basis in one district, and were gradually made available in other parts of Nepal. Data from the 2006 NDHS show that 25 percent of currently married women in Nepal have an unmet need for family planning with 9 percent expressing a need for spacing and 15 percent a need for limiting. There has been a decline in the unmet need for family planning over the past ten years, with unmet need in 2006 being 22 percent lower than it was in 1996. There was a 34 percent decrease in the proportion of women with unmet need for spacing while the proportion of women with an unmet need for limiting decreased by 11 percent. On the whole, these trends are positive because they show a couple’s increasing ability to achieve their childbearing goals.