THE PHILIPPINE FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAM: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTIES,

Some tentative conclusions about family planning in the Philippines are presented. Using data from National Demographic Survey NDS, the study investigated knowledge and use of birth control procedures among Philippine women by language, income, age, rate of use, information source, and use or nonuse. The study offers the following suggestions to designers of the AID family planning program in the Philippines 1 to avoid explicit reference to some population growth rate as a formal program goal 2 to examine the complex relationship between knowledge and use of contraceptive techniques 3 to gather information from across the country rather than in depth from any single area or ethnic group and 4 to use its leverage over the various agencies concerned to record experiences of individual women and to standardize recordkeeping. Author