Family planning success stories in Bangladesh and India

The Matlab Project in Bangladesh and the Kundam Project in India have demonstrated that a significant rise in contraceptive prevalence can occur in socioeconomic environments that are generally conducive to high fertility and mortality. The author describes the inputs and outputs of these two projects and tries to identify the factors underlying their success. Both projects are experimental in the sense that in each anintervention area is provided with special inputs that are not provided to a contiguous control area. The special inputs were different for the two projects. In the intervention area in Matlab, the project took responsibility for providing family planning and some rudimentary maternal and child health services that were considerably different from those provided in the national program. In Kundam, the project did not take responsibility for providing services in the intervention area, but rather tried to mobilize the community through various clubs and committees to take the most advantage of the government's family planning and other development programs. The success of the Matlab Project can be attributed to various aspects of the organizational system developed for delivering consumer-friendly services. The success of the Kundam Project can be attributed to various aspects of the system developed for community members'active participation in the program. The projects are not fully replicable because of inadequate human and financial resources, but the lessons learned from them should be useful in improving national programs. The Kundam Project is more realistic in the sense that it focuses on activities that supplement local activities of the national program rather than substitute for them (as in the Matlab Project). Thus the Kundam Project is more likely to be replicable than the Matlab Project.