DURRES, JUNE 25, 2010      Today, USAID organized a national conference on family planning in Durres which brought together more than 150 national stakeholders—representing the government, policymakers, providers, international agencies and donors—to promote and increase collaboration to enhance family planning services throughout Albania.

According to the recently released Albania Demographic and Health Survey (ADHS), despite the fact that 99% of Albanian women and men of reproductive age have knowledge about contraceptive methods, the use of effective modern contraceptive methods is 11%, only a slight increase from 8% in 2002.  The data, in addition to the nationally low fertility rate, suggest that abortions continue to be used as one of the means for birth control.

Dr. Petrit Vasili, the Minister of Health, said today in his opening remarks: “Family planning in Albania has made significant progress in the last two decades, but there is still unmet need for family planning, as well as opportunities to make modern contraception part of a healthy lifestyle of the Albanian people.”

The Ministry of Health has recently approved a new national Reproductive Health strategy for 2010-2015.  It includes family planning as a vital part of the strategy, and aims to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate and improve access to family planning services.

As part of assistance to the Ministry, USAID’s ACCESS-FP program introduced innovative ways to improve the quality of pre- and post-partum family planning services and made possible Albania’s first national family planning protocols to standardize the delivery of family planning services. Through this program, USAID has helped ensure that women have access to quality contraceptive services as an alternative to abortion.  The conference identified collaborative ways USAID’s program can be rolled out on a national level.