The Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for reproductive health (RH) is a coordinated set of priority activities designed to prevent excess morbidity and mortality, particularly among women and girls at the onset of humanitarian emergencies.
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Minimum Initial Service Package
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Facts & Stats
Average contraceptive use has increased over the last decade. By 2007, 62% of women who were married or in a union were using some form of contraception. However, since the 1990s, the annual increase of contraception use has declined and gaps between world regions have widened. In many region of the world the unmet need for family planning is moderate to high1.
A survey of 39 developing countries shows that 15% of married women of child bearing age and 7% of never-married women have an unmet need for contraception.1
According to a 2007 Guttmacher Institute report, unmet need for modern contraceptives is still substantial in developing regions, ranging from 28% of married women aged 15–49 in Sub-Saharan Africa and 23% in Asia (excluding East Asia) to 18% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 2003, contraceptives averted 187 million unintended pregnancies, 60 million unplanned births, 105 million induced abortions, 22 million spontaneous abortions and 215,000 pregnancy-related deaths in developing countries.
The annual birth rate for women in sub-Saharan Africa is 4.4% compared to 1.3% in developed countries.
On a global level, approximately 80 million women have unwanted or unintended pregnancies every year.
Worldwide, 2 in 5 pregnancies are unintended, and 1 in 5 of them ends in abortion.
In developing countries, 56% of married women aged 15–49 used modern contraceptives in 2003–2004, compared with 47% in 1990.
In 2008, the proportion of the total demand for family planning that was satisfied ranged from 11% in Chad to 94% in Vietnam.
In sub-Saharan Africa in 2008, an average of 43% of demand for all methods was satisfied, while in the other regions the average was 77%.
The 2010 Millennium Development Goals Report estimated that by providing access to modern contraception to women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy and who currently do not have access, will lower maternal deaths worldwide by 27% each year by reducing the annual number of unintended pregnancies from 75 million to 22 million.
More than 100 million married women in developing countries have an unmet need for contraception, meaning they are sexually active; are able to become pregnant; do not want to have a child soon or at all; and are not using any method.