Despite this progress, almost 16 per cent of women between 15-49 years who want to practice birth control cannot access contraceptives. The latest data show the number of women practicing birth control rose to 66 per cent last year, from 58.3 per cent in 2014. She praised the government for enabling more women and girls to access modern contraceptives and attaining its 2015 target. “In 2015 alone, the use of modern contraceptives averted 1.2 million unwanted pregnancies and prevented 4,000 maternal deaths,” said Mailu. The figures were released yesterday by Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020, a low-cost mobile technology that is used to gather and quickly disseminate family planning data.

Source: The Star June 29, 2016 01:36 UTC