I. the Methods

To specify what was being measured was not a simple matter, for family planning programmes generated both direct and indirect effects; and those effects were not easily differentiated, nor was there a satisfactory method of separating the effects of a family planning programme from those of socio-economic development. A direct programme effect would be births delayed or forgone by a group of women who had become acceptors of a contraceptive method in a programme. An indirect programme effect would be births delayed or forgone by women who had adopted some contraceptive method obtained from a source other than the programme, but who had been influenced by the programme to do so. An effect of socio-economic development might be a reduction offertility traceable to increases in the employment of women outside the home in non-familial activities or to improvements in the health and nutrition of women.