Unmet Need for Family Planning in Ghana: Trends and Determinants

Despite the fall in fertility, unmet need for family planning in Ghana has declined only modestly from 50 percent in 1988 to 42 percent in 2008. The relative contribution to unmet need of lack of access to methods has diminished but attitudinal resistance has grown. In 2008, 45 percent of women with unmet need had no apparent problems of access or attitude, a third had access but an unfavourable attitude and 23 percent had no access. The mention of health concerns as a reason for non-use has increased substantially since 1988 and is now the dominant reason. In recent surveys, the second most commonly mentioned reason was infrequent sex. An enduring resistance to hormonal methods, much of it based on experience of side effects during prior episodes of use, may lead many Ghanaian women, particularly in urban areas, to use periodic abstinence or reduced coital frequency as an alternative means of reducing pregnancy-risk. 3 INTRODUCTION The prime objective of family planning programmes is to reduce unmet need for contraception,