| Abstract |
Kenya’s family planning (FP) success has been overshadowed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which was declared a national crisis in 1999. Data from the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey in Kenya (KDHS) provide a cautionary tale of the unintended outcomes associated with the shift in attention of programs and resources from family planning primarily to HIV/AIDS. From a steady rise in contraceptive prevalence from 27 percent in 1989 to 39 percent in 1998, contraceptive prevalence stalled and remained at 39 percent in 2003. Yet, the surveys have consistently shown that many women report wanting to delay or limit future births but are not using any FP method. |