International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Declining levels of funding are making it difficult to provide contraception to women in poor African communities, according to the United Nation's Population Fund (UNFPA).

It is claimed that 200 million women still lack access to contraception, at a time when the largest youth population ever is reaching reproductive age.

UNFPA says the highest unmet need for family planning is among women in the poorest areas, leaving them vulnerable and unable to limit their number of offspring.

Nuriye Ortayli, a UNFPA technical adviser, claimed this demand for contraception is increasing quickly in developing countries, but cannot be met.

Echoing these comments, the fund's Stan Bernstein said the success of early family planning projects in the 1990s had potentially led to a sense of complacency.

"With so much early progress, it was thought that nothing new was needed, that the problem had been solved," he noted.

Earlier this week, UNFPA and the World Bank claimed that the issue of family planning had "fallen off the development radar".