Mapping the demand for family planning in Africa
Sub-national mapping of the proportion of women with their need for family planning satisfied by modern methods in Central and West Africa
This use case is developed in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Geospatial, IPUMS international, and the data in use is from the Demographic and Healthy Survey program (DHS) and Second Administrative Level Boundaries programme (SALB) of the United Nations.
Mapping universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , commonly referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has been adopted by Member States as our common plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. As part of the Agenda, the goal on Good Health and Well-Being aims to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services. The United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are responsible for global monitoring this goal with SDG indicator 3.7.1 , “Proportion of women of reproductive age (aged 15-49 years) who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods”. The 2030 Agenda also calls for increasing the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, and geographic location, among other dimensions.
Disaggregated data visualization by administrative units
The Secondary Administrative Level Boundaries ( SALB ) programme, led by the United NAtions Geospatial Information Section, is a global initiative to facilitate access, interoperability and data quality for sub-national administrative units, also called common geographies. Using standard sub-national administrative boundaries facilitates operations, analysis, monitoring and evaluation by removing the burden of boundary harmonization. It also enables the disaggregation of data and visualization of statistics by geographies below national levels, such as for the SDGs.
The SALB programme uses coherent, transparent and publicly available methodologies to collect data on subnational units. SALB data is rooted in national ownership as the data emanates from National Geospatial Information Authorities and is validated by them, The data is used to support initiatives across a range of different sectors and initiatives around the world, including a variety of national level – ministries, UN agencies, funds, programs, or international organizations.
SALB data can bring consistency and continuity to compare data at all geographic levels (sub-national, regional, and global), across countries as well as tracking across time. The UN SALB data repository is ready for use and should be leveraged for all sub-national programs for stronger insights and impact for the people and planet. Below, the geospatial data on administrative units from five neighbouring African countries is standardized, available on the SALB website on the respective pages of Benin , Cameroon , Niger , Nigeria and Togo , and is sourced from their respective government agencies. The data is readily available to support the reporting and monitoring of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at more disaggregated levels of geography.
Family planning in West and Central Africa
Access to safe, voluntary family planning is a human right. Family planning is central to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and it is a key factor in reducing poverty. Yet in developing regions, an estimated 257 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe and effective family planning methods, for reasons ranging from lack of access to information or services to lack of support from their partners or communities.
With only 18 percent of the sexually active using birth control and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV remain a huge problem. Nearly three and a half million Nigerians are living with HIV and neighbouring Cameroon and Chad also have hundreds of thousands of people infected, presented UNFPA .
With a 24 percent unmet need for family planning, more than 100,000 women in West and Central Africa die each year from preventable pregnancy-related causes more than in any other region of the world, reported by Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2013 .
Health statistic data, ‘Demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods (%)’ from SDG 3 Indicator 3.7.1 for the most recent years of each country, sourced from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program are portrayed leveraging the available SALB data on administrative units.
The series of dynamic maps below use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) along with SALB administrative units to illustrate spatial patterns in the percentage of women whose need for family planning is satisfied with modern methods (SDG 3 Indicator 3.7.1). Data come from the most recent DHS survey in each country.
The DHS survey data is presented both nationally and by sub-national reporting area. Using geographical data, researchers can link DHS data with routine health data, health facility locations, local infrastructure like roads, rivers, and environmental conditions.
Visualization of access to family planning can help specialized international organizations, such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which supports Member States in expanding access to family planning, to identify prioritized areas where help is most needed. Family planning is central to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and it is a key factor in reducing poverty. UNFPA priorities include ensuring a steady, reliable supply of quality contraceptives; strengthening national health systems; advocating for policies supportive of family planning; and gathering data to support this work.
Family planning in Togo
Of five study countries, Togo shows the most significant increase in demand for family planning satisfied with modern methods between 1998 and 2013. Moreover, all subnational units display increased during this period, while subnational trends in the other countries are more mixed.
The map below provides an interactive slider to highlight the change in demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods within the subnational units of Togo between 1998 (left) and 2013 (right).
To perform historical analysis and showcase differences overtime, both the statistical data and geographies of administrative units must be available. The SALB programme publishes the different datasets for respective countries and periods since 2000. DHS provides the statistical data based on the rounds of census samples they receive from States.
To promote healthy lives and well-being for all by 2030, Member States should continue and amplify their efforts to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health. The national and sub-national data presented here can help states to better coordinate and invest in family planning, especially in the administrative units of the country where contraceptive prevalence and the demand for family planning satisfied with modern methods are still low, and the growth in the number of women of reproductive age is rapid.
Access to family planning is not only related to women’s reproductive rights and the reduction of unintended pregnancies, but also to improved health and nutritional status of children, brought about by longer birth spacing and the reduction in maternal mortality. Redefining the global strategy for achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services and identifying possible avenues for improved access is important to guarantee and improve the progress of countries that are most in need.
We acknowledge UNFPA and IPUMS for their contributions in identifying substantive use cases, conducting data analysis, and advising on data mapping methodology. Data for the maps is made available by the Demographic and Health Surveys program in collaboration with participating countries.