Korean national family planning program

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/This case history evaluates the Korean Family Planning Program for the ten-year period from 1962 to 1971. Judged to be among the more successful of such programs in developing countries, it was established in 1961 as the principal means for implementing national population policy in the Korean government's first Five-Year Economic Development Plan. This guided change approach must, however, share credit for the demonstrated decline in the nation's birth rate with two other factors, each operating independently--induced abortion and marriage at a later age. The medical emphasis upon contraceptive controls, evidenced in the design phase of the Family Planning Program, is weighed against the social, cultural, and political forces operating in client communities, where communication and education toward attitudinal and behavioral change demanded more attention. Certain phenomena are identified as contributing critical input for planning and implementation in this program, with implications for other operations of like nature. For example, the program's integration with economic development planning by the central government is seen as complementing a later involvement with the nationwide community development movement at the rural or village level. Similarly, the centralization of responsibility among national planners for target definition and budgetary allocation is viewed as balancing the decentralization of specific program execution among local governments. The operational effectiveness of linkages between government offices and private organizations achieved at every level is characterized as vital to the program's success