ABSTRACT
Egypt was the first Arab country in the ME to adopt a family planning policy. Yet, data on the contraceptive prevalence rate show that family planning policy was not the major factor accounting for the changes in fertility and natural increase. Despite great efforts to bring about lower fertility rates, family planning policy during 1985-92 remained noncoercive and soft. Of the total expenditure in 1988, over half came from external sources grants by international organizations and foreign governments to further Egypt's family planning efforts while the Egyptian Government contributed only 37% or E17m. The opposition to Mubarak's antinatalist policy, particularly the Islamic movements, claimed that Egypt's economic problems unemployment, lack of housing and inflation were first and foremost the result of an inadequate policy and misguided leadership and not of rapid population growth. The network of family planning services included in the 1980s three different components: governmental, voluntary public and private, with the governmental system playing the major role.
