A major effort of China's family planning program has been placed on producing safe and effective contraceptives which should be made easily accessible to as many people as possible. Presently, the State Family Planning Commission (SFPC), the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and the State Drug Management Bureau share the responsibility for the planning, manufacture, and delivery of contraceptives. The SFPC's chief tasks are: 1) assessing the demand for contraceptives in order to provide industrial departments data for production planning; 2) assuming responsibility for the allocation of, and consultation regarding the uses of, contraceptives by administrative unit: 1st to the 2000 counties, then to 500,000 Xiangs, 6,500,000 villages, 5,000,000 villages' groups, and finally on to the users; 3) training the managers of contraceptive allocation at all levels; 4) examining the efficiency of usage; and 5) administering the annual appropriation from the government for contraceptives. Making plans for the demand for contraceptives is a key link for the delivery system. The plan is usually carried out by the most basic unit of administration (such as urban residents' groups, villagers' groups, or factory teams), according to the actual needs of the users. However, there are shortcomings in the existing system: 1) waste is serious due to free supply, and 2) the enthusiasm of the pharmacies to distribute is adversely affected since there are no economic benefits. Some pharmacies are reluctant to take on the distribution of contraceptives. Services in these shops are therefore poor, with little variety in products.

作者：C, Liu

来源：China population newsletter 1986 年 3卷 6期