Women in Cameroon are more likely to use a modern contraceptive method when they are exposed to a campaign to increase family planning, according to findings reported in "The Impact of a Regional Family Planning Service Promotion Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Cameroon." The analysis, by Stella Babalola of Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs, et al., is based on interviews with women who had participated in the 1998 Cameroon Demographic Health Survey (DHS).
According to the analysis, published in the December 2001 issue of International Family Planning Perspectives, the Institute's quarterly, peer-reviewed journal, more than one-third (37%) of women reported exposure to the Gold Circle campaign. Among these women there was a 39% increase in contraceptive use from 19.5% using modern contraceptives in 1998 to 27.1% in 1999, compared with a 4% increase among women who were not exposed to the campaign. Furthermore, among women who had not been using a modern contraceptive method before the campaign was launched, those who had been exposed to the campaign were considerably more likely to have begun using one than women who had not been exposed to the campaign.
The Gold Circle initiative, part of the Santé Familiale et Prévention du SIDA project supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is being implemented in four French-speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative's goals are to increase the availability of family planning methods and to improve clinic management, client-provider interactions and infection prevention practices. Its media campaign promotes sites where women can obtain quality reproductive health services. The cost of implementing the Gold Circle campaign in Cameroon, including materials, distribution, community events and consultants' time, was only $36,000 over a one-year period. Considering that the campaign reached 37% of an estimated 3.5 million women of reproductive age in Cameroon, the cost was only about 3 cents per woman reached.
The December issue of International Family Planning Perspectives also includes: • "The Acceptability of a Vaginal Microbicide Among South African Men," by Gita Ramjee, Eleanor Gouws, Amy Andrews, Landon Myer and Amy E. Weber;
• "Why are Condoms Used, and How Many Are Needed? Estimates from Orissa, India," by Martine Collumbien, Braj Das and Oona M.R. Campbell;
• "Gender Differences in Adult Perspectives on Adolescent Reproductive Behaviors: Evidence from Lomé, Togo," by Ilene S. Speizer, Stephanie A. Mullen and Kodjopatapa Amégee;
• "The Persistence of a Service Delivery 'Culture': Findings from a Qualitative Study on Bangladesh," by Sidney Ruth Schuler, Lisa M. Bates and Md. Khairul Islam; and
• "Strategies for Detection of Sexually Transmitted Infection Among Family Planning Clients in Jamaica," by Elizabeth Ward, Alan Spruyt, Laurie Fox, Laura Johnson, Emelita Wong, Frieda Behets, J. Peter Figueroa and Jo Morris.