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(May 2010)Today, increasing numbers of women and men are making decisions about their family size and spacing and are using family planning to help achieve their intensions. Efforts to achieve contraceptive security focus on ensuring that all women and men have access to modern, effective contraception. Improving contraceptive security entails addressing a number of complex and interrelated issues, and many countries continue to make significant advances. Successful efforts for contraceptive security have generally been built on the involvement of stakeholders from different sectors. A country’s ministry of health has a central role because it is responsible for improving the nation’s health. It uses available information and data to understand the situation and lead a multisectoral effort that addresses priority issues related to contraceptive security.
Successful efforts rely on the active participation of other actors—government ministries, NGOs and civil society groups, the commercial sector and private providers, donors, and international assistance organizations. Together, these groups can harness the political support needed to develop and implement changes that ensure ongoing access to high-quality contraceptives for all women and men who choose to use them.
Priority Actions and Recommendations for Contraceptive Security is one of seven PRB policy briefs that make up Contraceptive Security: A Toolkit for Policy Audiences, a series designed to explain different aspects of contraceptive security to policymakers, program managers, media, and civil society. This final brief provides recommendations to guide stakeholders on how to address the key aspects of contraceptive security included in the previous briefs. Each set of recommendations is coupled with a short, relevant experience of a contraceptive security success.
The other briefs in the toolkit are:
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- Contraceptive Security For Policy Audiences: An Overview (PDF: 558KB)
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- Planning for Contraceptive Security: Start With SPARHCS (PDF: 699KB)
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- Financing Contraceptives: A New Funding Environment (PDF: 694KB)
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- Procuring Contraceptives: Options for Countries (PDF: 647KB)
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- Supply Chain: Getting Contraceptives to Users (PDF: 758KB)
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- Policy Environment: Understanding the Context for Contraceptive Security (PDF: 653KB)
James Gribble is vice president for International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau.