World Bank calls for action on contraceptives

More funding is needed for family planning issues in developing countries, the World Bank has said, citing new data that reveals 51 million unplanned pregnancies occur because women lack access to contraceptives.

Another 25 million pregnancies in developing countries occur because contraceptives are incorrectly used or because birth control measures fail, the agency said in a report.

"It's simply tragic that...reproductive health programmes have fallen off the radar," said Joy Phumaphi, World Bank vice president for Human Development and a former health minister in Botswana.

She said the issue was especially topical following global concern over rising food and fuel costs. "Giving women access to modern contraception and family planning also helps to boost economic growth while reducing high birth rates so strongly linked with endemic poverty, poor education, and high numbers of maternal and infant deaths," Phumaphi added.

The World Bank said birth rates have fallen fastest in Asia but at a slower pace in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the population is growing at a rate of 2.5% a year.

By comparison, populations are growing by 1.2% a year in Latin America and Asia, the Bank added.

The report, ‘Fertility Regulation Behaviors and Their Costs: Contraception and Unintended Pregnancies in Africa and Eastern Europe and Central Asia,' said some 68,000 women die every year due to unsafe abortions, while another 5.3 million suffer temporary or permanent disability as a result.

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