Current
projects
Dominican Republic
2.925Number of women aged 15-49 (thousands)1 2.24 Total Fertility Rate (TFR)2 70.2% Percent of Married Women 15-49 Using Contraception, Modern Methods2 2.0% Percent of women using IUDs Among Modern Contraceptive Users3 12.5% Percent of married women with unmet need for modern family planning2
1 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024, custom data acquired via website.
2 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Model-based Estimates and Projections of Family Planning Indicators 2024, custom data acquired via website.
3 UN Contraceptive Use by Method Data Booklet 2019.
Profamilia (IPPF)
Within ICA Foundation’s network partnership with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the LNG IUS project with PROFAMILIA, a Dominican Republic non-profit institution, was started already in 2010. PROFAMILIA contributes to the sexual and reproductive health needs and promotion of health rights of women, through advocacy, services, education and quality products.
LNG IUS has been integrated into PROFAMILIA’s contraceptive method mix in six outpatient clinics. These clinics mainly serve communities of low socio-economic status—over 1500 people per day.
MOH Dominican Republic / MISPAS
Ministry of Health of Honduras received LNG IUS donation under the RHSC-funded initiative, which is being implemented by El Consejo de Ministros de Salud de Centroamérica (COMISCA), and under the guidance of COMISCA, the MOH piloted the application of new service delivery guidelines for providing adolescents with contraceptives, including for the first time the hormonal IUD. COMISCA is the political entity of the Sistema de la Integración Centroamérica whose purpose is to identify and prioritize regional health problems. COMISCA’s Secretariat (SE-COMISCA), which is the direct grantee of the award, is the primary vehicle through which national health ministries, together with representatives of PAHO/WHO and country delegations, convene to analyze and develop proposals. In June 2021, SE-COMISA presented and secured Ministerial approval of a regional study on adolescent equity and fertility highlighting the progress made by countries across the region in reducing unwanted pregnancy within a sexual and reproductive rights framework. The report concludes with a set of six recommendations, one of which called for wider use of contraceptives by young people in accordance with appropriate service delivery guidelines. Such guidelines were subsequently developed with financial support from the RHSC, and they included provisions for the distribution of LARCs. In 2022, the Ministers recommended that the guidelines be field tested in three pilot countries: Honduras, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, three countries with the highest rate of unwanted adolescent pregnancy in the region, by using LNG IUS received through a donation from ICA Foundation.
The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Health Adolescent Program has selected 12 health facilities to participate in the field test, all of which are located in metropolitan Santo Domingo, Elias Piña, Pedernales, and Bahoruco.
