A Narrative Review of the Impact of Public Family Planning Policies and Programs on the Contraceptive Transition in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

In this paper, I provide a narrative review of the literature addressing the contribution of public family planning programs and policies to the contraceptive transition in low‐ and middle‐income countries. I address the long‐running debate between economists and demographers who examine the relative contribution of preferences compared to programs to fertility decline, but I steer the paper towards a deeper discussion of the kinds of programs that have been effective in shaping contraceptive use (not necessarily fertility). I will discuss why public family planning programs and policies are needed, and the differing motivations of governments, implementers, and program designers are also discussed. Specific country‐level policy examples are given for Peru, Rwanda, and Vietnam to illustrate how public programs affected contractive use in these cases. A variety of programs are reviewed for relative success (e.g., mass media, or postpartum family planning programs). The success (and failure) stories highlight the need to be attentive to context and external validity when scaling up or adapting programs to national‐level policies. The review highlights the types of programs and policies that have been successful and the context in which the successes occurred.