Choosing Plan B Over Plan A: Risk Compensation Theory and Contraceptive Choice in India.

Can women's contraceptive method choice be better understood through risk compensation theory? This theory implies that people act with greater care when the perceived risk of an activity is higher and with less care when it is lower. We examine how increased over-the-counter access to emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) accompanied by marketing campaigns in India affected women's contraceptive method choices and incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Although ECPs substantially reduce the risk of pregnancy, they are less effective than other contraceptive methods and do not reduce the risk of STIs.

Conservation agriculture and climate resilience.

Agricultural productivity growth is vital for economic and food security outcomes which are threatened by climate change. In response, governments and development agencies are encouraging the adoption of 'climate-smart' agricultural technologies, such as conservation agriculture (CA). However, there is little rigorous evidence that demonstrates the effect of CA on production or climate resilience, and what evidence exists is hampered by selection bias.

The impact of demand factors, quality of care and access to facilities on contraceptive use in Tanzania.

The low contraceptive prevalence rate and the existence of unmet demand for family planning services present a challenge for parties involved in family planning research in Tanzania. The observed situation has been explained by the demand-side variables such as socioeconomic characteristics and cultural values that maintain the demand for large families. A small, but growing body of research is examining the effect of supply-side factors such as quality of care of family planning services on the demand for contraceptives.

Reconsidering the doorstep-delivery system in the Bangladesh Family Planning Program.

The government of Bangladesh is currently testing and implementing strategies to change its family planning program from a reliance on field-workers who conduct home visits to a conventional fixed-site delivery system. Researchers have made two suggestions: First, the program should encourage women to switch from nonclinical methods delivered by family planning workers to more cost-effective clinical methods such as sterilization, and second, field-workers should not be resupplying nonclinical methods, but should focus their attention on motivating nonusers to practice contraception. Longitudinal data from the Maternal and Child Health-Family Planning Extension Project of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, are analyzed to show that a better strategy might be to target visits to women according to their educational level and area of residence.