Family planning programmes in Ethiopia

Contraceptives have been used in one form or another for thousands of years throughout human history and even prehistory. The methods had used before the 20^thC were not always as safe or effective as the contraceptives available today.

The modern family planning service in Ethiopia started as The Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE), established in 1966. FGAE's only family planning services were provided by a single-room clinic run by one nurse, at the former St Paul Hospital in Addis Ababa. FGAE's programme activities and services are now broadly spread all over the country, creating a vast network.

In the last 20 years, with the adoption of the population policy in 1993, numerous local and international partners in family planning have come together to assist the government in expanding family planning programmes and services. The National Population Office was established to implement and oversee the strategies and actions related to the population policy. In 1996, the Ministry of Health released Guidelines for Family Planning Services in Ethiopia to guide health providers and managers, as well as to expand and ensure quality family planning services in the country.

The Ministry of Health designed new outlets for family planning services in the form of community-based distribution, social marketing and work-based services, in addition to the pre-existing facility-based and outreach family planning services. Social marketing is about making available family planning methods at an affordable price using private retailers. Work-based services are services offered to users' at their place of work, such as factories, prisons and schools.

Moreover, in the last decade, integration and linkage between family planning services and HIV/AIDS care, along with maternal and other reproductive health services, has been emphasised in guidelines and strategic documents with the aim of enhancing family planning utilisation. Currently, the service has been provided to rural communities at household level through the Health Extension Programme. Access to these services has been almost universal for all urban and rural communities so that every woman in the population can get any contraceptive method of her choice free of charge.

Types of Family Planning Services Provided at Different Service Delivery Points