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The 2018 Population & family planning policy reforms in Pakistan: efficacy, effectiveness, and sustainability

Muhammad Asif Wazir, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Yilma Melkamu, Addis Ababa University

In November 2018, Pakistan adopts the ground breaking population policy reforms to address the mounting rate of population growth in the country followed by the surprising results of the 2017 Population Census and latest DHS survey, which showed that the rate of population growth since the 1998 census was considerably higher than expected and modern contraceptive use and fertility remains stationary. This initiative triggered the media coverage and stimulated the discussion. We examine the context of 2018 reforms, including the economic, demographic and governance mechanism and speculate on their likely effect. Noting that the impact of these reforms on Pakistan’s long-term demographic future is likely to be relatively substantial, we consider why more drastic reform may have been difficult to implement. We offer observations about possible future directions for Pakistan family planning policies. We also explore how much policies and implementation plans are integrated/institutionalized in existing enabling systems and processes such as budget decisions and accountability structures from the top to the grassroots. We study enforced political shift of Pakistan’s family planning apparatus may not be plausible within the context of “subnational pronatalism” within federally prescribed antinatalism.

Keywords: Policy, Family planning and contraception, Politics and demography, Policy evaluation

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 114. Population Policies and the Demographic Transition