ABSTRACT
Interest in the availability of contraception as a topic for analysis has mounted rapidly over the last two decades, in step with concern about worldwide population growth and the consequent mushrooming of international family planning assistance programs. The issue of availability, however, can be seen quite simply as comprising all aspects of contraceptive supply. A distinction is often made between accessibility and availability. Availability has sometimes been taken to mean the actual presence or absence of a product or service, whereas accessibility may refer to the relative ease of obtaining it, given that it is available. Over the course of the World Fertility Survey, increasing emphasis was placed on the topic of availability of family planning services. The individual-level questionnaire for the Egyptian survey contained a fairly standard series of method-specific questions on availability. The chapter presents findings for the Philippines and Egypt.
