Economic Analysis of Population and Reproductive Health Policies

Understanding the way economists formulate answers to these questions can be helpful to those working on FP/RH programs in two ways. First, it can help them design better policies. The standard economic framework offers a clear and compelling way to think about many health sector policies. Second, it can be helpful in communicating with economists in ministries of finance and planning who control the allocation of scarce government resources among competing uses. This is increasingly important in a postCairo world. Because the Cairo Program of Action (POA) addresses a range of human development issues as well as recommending a broad package of reproductive health services, the Cairo POA requires substantial resources. At the same time, competition for funds and tighter overall budgets are forcing donors and government officials working in population and reproductive health to strengthen their arguments for financial support. At the time of the recent review of progress during the five years since the Cairo conference, the level of resource mobilization for the POA was scarcely two-thirds of the amount called for in Cairo.