Potential Role of Male Community-Based Distributors in a Family-Planning Programme in Western Uganda: Results of a Pilot Study (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Providing effective and accessible family-planning services to rural populations in developing countries is a challenge. As facility-based family-planning programmes usually cover only a small portion of the rural population, community-based distribution of contraceptives was generally established in the early 1970s. This occurred mainly in Asia and Latin America, with Africa lagging much behind. Even by the 1980s, few African countries had programmes for community-based distribution of contraceptives: one of those early programmes was in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1). Established African programmes for community-based distribution of contraceptives have been reported from the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe (2).