Mbizvo Michael T, Bellows Nicole, Rosen Joseph G, Mupeta Stephen, Mwiche Chisha A, Bellows Ben
Population Council, Lusaka, Zambia.
Avenir Health, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
Gates Open Res. 2020 Jul 27;3:1459. doi: 10.12688/gatesopenres.12989.2. eCollection 2019.
Family planning represents a 'best buy' in global efforts to achieve sustainable development and attain improvements in sexual and reproductive health. By meeting contraceptive needs of all women, significant public health impact and development gains accrue. At the same time, governments face the complex challenge of allocating finite resources to competing priorities, each of which presents known and unknown challenges and opportunities. Zambia has experienced a slow but steady increase in contraceptive prevalence, with slight decline in total fertility rate (TFR), over the past 20 years. Drawing from the Zambian context, including a review of current policy solutions, we present a case for making investments in voluntary family planning (FP), underpinned by a human rights framework, as a pillar for accelerating development and socio-economic advancement. Through multilevel interventions aimed at averting unintended pregnancies, Zambia - and other low- and middle-income countries - can reduce their age dependency ratios and harness economic growth opportunities awarded by the demographic dividend while improving the health and quality of life of the population.
计划生育是全球实现可持续发展以及改善性健康和生殖健康努力中的一项“物超所值”的举措。通过满足所有妇女的避孕需求，可产生重大的公共卫生影响并带来发展收益。与此同时，各国政府面临着将有限资源分配给相互竞争的优先事项这一复杂挑战，其中每一项都带来了已知和未知的挑战与机遇。在过去20年里，赞比亚的避孕普及率缓慢但稳步上升，总生育率略有下降。借鉴赞比亚的情况，包括对当前政策解决方案的审查，我们提出了以人权框架为支撑，投资自愿计划生育的理由，将其作为加速发展和社会经济进步的支柱。通过旨在避免意外怀孕的多层次干预措施，赞比亚以及其他低收入和中等收入国家可以降低其年龄抚养比，利用人口红利带来的经济增长机会，同时改善民众的健康和生活质量。
