TheUK and Nepal Governments are to work together to provide 1.5 million women in Nepal with family planning services. The UK will invest £15.2 million in the Family Planning Project over four years.

There will be a better range of modern contraceptives available to poor and excluded women, especially in rural and remote areas for women that currently do not use contraceptives. The services will be delivered by the Nepal Government and through private sector providers.

Nepal is making good progress on meeting most of the health-related Millennium Development Goals, other than the target for the use of modern contraceptives, progress against which has slowed down.

The Government of Nepal has requested the British Government to provide support for family planning, to work with both Government and Private Providers, to expand the range of services and contraceptives that are currently available to women.

The project will focus on those women and young girls who are poor, uneducated, socially excluded and living in remote areas.

This additional support to family planning will complement the already existing support that the British Government provides to the Government of Nepal’s Health Sector Programme.

Dominic O’Neill, the Head of the Britain’s Department for International Development in Nepal, said: “Britain is committed to helping those in greatest need, whoever they are and however remote they may be. This project will help the poorest and most excluded women and girls have more choice about probably one of the most important decisions in their lives - when to become pregnant and what method to use”.

Matt Gordon, DFID team leader for Service Delivery said: “The use of modern contraceptives in Nepal is comparable to Bangladesh and India, however, there are important differences in access to services in Nepal that need to be addressed; contraceptive use is 18% higher in urban than rural areas and rich women are twice as likely to be using contraceptives than poor women.”