Bangladesh's historic family planning achievements are reversing and the impacts run deep.

The total fertility rate that fell from 6.3 to 2.3 over five decades has gone up to 2.4 in 2025. Family planning contacts are down 45% since 2023, with only 17.87% of the urban poor being reached. Nearly half of postpartum women in informal settlements remain without contraception.

In one of the world's most densely populated countries, this is a crisis that can't afford inaction.

At today's roundtable organised by SAJIDA Foundation in partnership with Prothom Alo under The Challenge Initiative, experts called for urgent action: stronger prioritisation of family planning in budget and human resource allocation, clear accountability across government actors, health workers’ capacity building, and improved NGO-government-private sector coordination - all contributing to system strengthening.

More from the roundtable coming soon.