Evaluation techniques in family planning

PIP: What proved to be a lively yet highly technical conference on the assessment of the acceptance and use-effctiveness of family planning methods was held in Bangkok last June by ECAFE on the initiative of Dr. C. Chandrasekaran, the regional demographic adviser. The meeting was attended by a strong contingent of demographers, sociologists and statisticans from the USA and by workers from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. There were representatives of FAO, WHO and the Population Division of the UN. The conference considered and debated a wide range of issues involved in evaluation, from the definition of terms to detailed procedures in the calculation of indices and the detection of fertility trends. A certain amount of new ground was broken with the introduction of the concept of "extended use-effectiveness" (the study of pregnancy rates among acceptors of a method beyond the point of discontinuance) and the presentation of new methods of calculating births prevented by contraceptive use. Some progress was made towards laying down standards for the frequency of performance of surveys, both of K.A.P. in populations at large, and of contraceptive continuance and event-rates among acceptors. Attention was given to the special problems of evaluation presented by oral contraceptives, and by data on abortions and sterilizations. The proven usefulness of the life-table method of studying use-effectiveness was reaffirmed, and work on refining this now basic tool of evaluation was reported. A number of quite different schemes of data collection and processing for study of the characteristics of acceptors was described, and it was accepted by the participants that, although as much standardization as possible was desirable, each programme must make its own selection from the range of possibilities in the light of specific conditions. In addition to the main lines of analysis of use-effectiveness and programme effectiveness, the conference spent some time on discussion of such subjects as cost analysis, sensitive indices of fertility change, and the use of models in connection with programme study and evaluation. The specific evaluation needs and procedures of a number of countries in the ECAFE region were described. Although the conference fell far short of providing a comprehensive and agreed set of rules for the evaluation of family planning programmes. Indeed this was not its objective it admirably performed the function of acquainting theoretical and practical workers with each other's problems, and ensuring that all concerned were brought up-to-date on the progress being made in the region in the development and use of evaluation tools.