World Development Report 1984

$90 in Nigeria. Across countries, the various forms 300,000 users of commercial sources of contracepof
contraception cost an average of $20 to $40 a tion spent an average of $30 each in 1981, their
year. total outlay being several times what the govern-
In the better-off developing countries, the cost of ment spent. Private spending on this scale-which
buying commercially available contraceptives is understates the total because it excludes access
small in relation to average income per capita costs-is not typical of all developing countries,
(although even in those countries the cost may be but it shows a widespread willingness to pay for
relatively large for the poor). For example, the contraception.
retail price of a year's supply of oral contraceptives
in 1979 was equivalent to only 0.3 percent of per Allocation of public expenditures
capita income in Mexico and to 0.5 percent in
Brazil. But in low-income countries the cost can be The bulk of public spending on populationprohibitive-equivalent
to 17 percent of per capita almost 50 percent in seventeen countries reporting
income in Bangladesh, for example, and 18 percent details of expenditures-goes directly to providing
in Zaire, or about 3 percent of total income for the contraceptive services. Progressively smaller
average household. All these figures understate shares are taken up by general program administhe
real cost of obtaining family planning services, tration, information-education-communication
whether private or public, because people also activities, research and evaluation, and personnel
have to pay for the time and travel needed to training.
obtain their contraceptives. With all public spending on family planning
In Korea some 1.2 million users bought contra- taken into account, expenditure averages about
ceptives commercially in 1979 at an average annual $0.70 per capita across all developing countries.
cost of about $12-a total outlay of $15 million, For each contraceptive user, spending is much
about $0.40 per capita for Korea's entire popula- higher-around $21 a year. But most users are in
tion, and roughly equivalent to the $0.42 per capita China and India, where programs spend less per
spent on the domestic government budget, exclu- user, so the weighted average is lower at $11. Addsive
of foreign donor contributions. In Peru about ing private expenditures could easily double the
TABLE 7.5
Source of contraception among currently married women aged 15 to 44 and their husbands
1 | ,|,, a I .t of current contraceptive users)
Government Other publicly funded or Private No source or
Regiion and countrjil programs subsidized programs sector other'
East Asia
Korea, Rep. of (1979) 36 0 42 22
Thailand (1978) 37 35 18 10
Latin America and Caribbean
Brazil
Piaui (1979) 59 0 23 18
Sao Paulo (1978) 16 0 63 21
Bahia (1980) 27 1 48 24
Rio Grande do Norte (1980) 57 0 22 21
Colombia (1978) 21 27 33 19
Costa Rica (1978) 57 0 28 15
El Salvador (1978) 73 8 12 6
Guatemala (1978) 44 11 26 18
Jamaica (1979) 63 27 7 3
Mexico (1978) 42 2 36 20
Panama (1979-80) 71 0 19 10
Paraguay (1977) 41 8 28 22
North Africa
Tunisia
Jendouba (1979) 91 0 5 4
a. Applies to rhythm or withdrawal; other may include contraceptives obtained from a friend or in a foreign country.
Sou rces: Morris and others, 1981; Merrick, 1984.
151