The Influence of Family Planning Logistics Systems on Contraceptive Use

Ali M. Karim, John Snow, Inc.

This paper studies the influence of family planning logistics systems’ performance on contraceptive use. The performance of logistics systems of 24 countries is measured during 1995 and 1999 using an index constructed from 17 items. Family planning and socio-economic indicators for the same periods are obtained from DHS and other published sources. An areal analysis using a country-level fixed-effects regression model accounting for measurement error of the independent variables shows that the increase in logistics systems' performance score over the period is associated with increase in contraceptive use, net of the secular trend and the changes in other family planning program efforts, fertility desire, external population assistance, female education, female labor force participation, and per capita gross national product. The study supports the notion that an effective supply chain is essential for the success of family planning programs; about one-fifth of the contraceptive prevalence rate in the sampled countries is attributable towards the logistics systems.