Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.
Formidable challenges: uncertain political situation, cultural norms favoring high fertility, a thin patchwork of service delivery institutions, logistical issues in a vast country with weak infrastructure, and low capacity of the population to pay for contraceptive services. Encouraging progress: increasing government and donor support, openness to progressive service delivery policies, innovative programming including robust social marketing and initiatives with nursing schools and the military, strong collaboration among stakeholders, high unmet need suggesting strong latent demand for family planning, and an increasingly balanced method mix including long-acting methods.
Momentum for family planning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC is evident in multiple ways: strong political will, increasing donor support, a growing number of implementing organizations, innovative family planning programming, and a cohesive family planning stakeholder group. Between and , the modern contraceptive prevalence rate mCPR in the capital city of Kinshasa increased from Key challenges include uncertainty over the political situation, difficulties of ensuring access to family planning services in a vast country with a weak transportation infrastructure, funding shortfalls for procuring adequate quantities of contraceptives, weak contraceptive logistics and supply chain management, strong cultural norms that favor large families, and low capacity of the population to pay for contraceptive services.
This article describes promising initiatives designed to address these barriers, consistent with the World Health Organization's framework for health systems strengthening. For example, the national family planning coordinating mechanism is being replicated at the provincial level to oversee the expansion of family planning service delivery.
Promising initiatives are being implemented to improve the supply and quality of services and generate demand for family planning, including social marketing of subsidized contraceptives at both traditional and non-traditional channels and strengthening of services in military health facilities.
