Family planning (FP) is urgently needed in Pakistan but progress remains slow. In its 2002 Population Policy,
the country pledged to reduce its total fertility rate to 2.2 by 2020; at the London Summit in 2012, it further
committed to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) to 55 percent by the same year. Despite some
important achievements, Pakistan’s current CPR is only 35 percent, the total fertility rate is 3.8, and an
alarming 20 percent of married couples of reproductive age express an unmet need for FP (NIPS and
Measure DHS 2013).
Thus far, FP programming in the country has largely been directed at women, their husbands regarded, at
best, as interested bystanders, and at worst, as grudging gatekeeepers impeding women’s use of contraception.
This has been mainly due to men’s own perceptions of FP as women’s business and their culturally-driven
unease with the idea of family planning. However, recent research indicates that men’s attitudes toward FP
are changing and they are eager to be involved.
In several of its recent studies, the Population Council has focused on men’s perspectives of FP in order to
support an evidence-based agenda that brings men into mainstream FP programming. This paper synthesizes
the data from these studies, as well as from other research,1 on Pakistani men’s readiness to be more involved
in FP, the challenges they face in FP adoption and continuation, and the preparedness of the health sector to
respond to their needs.