Does the Ethiopian Health Extension Programme improve contraceptive uptake for rural women?

Because of many benefits of the family planning programmes, African governments had opted to establish a FPP during in the 1980s and early 1990s. But these FPPs depended mainly on external funding. When the international funders shifted their funding priorities from FPPs to HIV/AIDS in mid 1990s, implementation of FPP became a serious challenge. Ethiopia is an exception. The government initiated the Health Extension Programme (HEP) in 2004 that provides health care services (including FP) at community level. This study is aimed at assessing the impact of HEP on family planning using three rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 2000, 2005 and 2011. Data were analyzed using tabular and graphical methods, and a binary logistic regression model is fitted to identify factors associated with contraceptive use. Findings of the study reveal that contraceptive uptake has increased dramatically especially in the rural areas and the most popular contraception is injectables, a method provided by the extension workers. In addition, the regions where the HEP is concentrated are doing much better than other regions. So there is no doubt that HEP has a positive impact towards contraceptive use in Ethiopia and other African countries need to emulate such an initiative.