Perspectives on Unmet Need for Family Planning in West Africa: Benin POLICY Project (July 2005)  Full Document (English)      Order for free      email to me  The countries of West Africa have some of the highest levels of unmet need for family planning in the world. During the six-year period (1995–2000) following the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, there were an estimated 12 million unintended pregnancies in the 18 West Africa Regional Program (WARP) countries. Yet family planning programs are currently low on most national agendas and there is no concerted effort to address the expressed need for family planning. To reduce the health and development consequences of unintended fertility in West Africa, policymakers and planners need to study the characteristics of women with a demonstrated unmet need for family planning and use that information to improve policies and programs. This series of briefing papers is designed to contribute to that effort by offering some perspectives on the nature and dimensions of unmet need based on the findings of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in 11 West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. This brief focuses on Benin.