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The Family Planning Program Effort Index: 1999 Cycle

Indices of effort by large scale family planning programs have been measured periodically since 1972. These scores are intended to capture program effort or strength, independent of outputs such as contraceptive use or fertility change. Questionnaires were sent to expert observers who provided judgments on the details of program effort for 89 developing countries. The responses for each country were converted to scores for 30 program features, which were then grouped into four components of program effort. An overall program effort index was calculated as the sum of all 30 feature scores.