Issues and strategies for sustainability of family planning services in Egypt. A background analysis paper.

This paper is designed to serve as a key background document for the Sustainability Strategy Conference planned for May 3–4, 2001. It summarizes the findings of 12 individual situation analysis papers developed under four different subject areas namely: financial sustainability, institutional capacity, enabling environment, and sustainability of demand. It also incorporates the issues and concerns raised in sustainability meetings organized by the POLICY II and POP IV on March 22 and 27, 2001. The purpose of the paper is to provide information to help policymakers and stakeholders develop population program sustainability strategies in the conference. The paper uses a conceptual framework of sustainability adopted from one developed by POP IV. It discusses a number of key factors influencing population program sustainability, key issues and challenges, and provides a comprehensive list of potential strategy-options under the four sustainability components namely financial sustainability, institutional capacity, enabling environment, and sustainability of demand. It also discusses feasibility issues for a couple of potential strategy-options in order to facilitate the feasibility analysis to be conducted by the conference participants.