ABSTRACT
PIP: Prices for socially marketed condoms and oral contraceptives (OCs) in selected countries--Bangladesh, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Nepal, Zimbabwe, and Mexico--are set forth and compared with cost of living data such as per capita income and food prices. Also presented for each country is a couple-years of protection cost factor, representing the hypothetical number of days of income per capita needed to purchase a 1 year supply of condoms. The lowest such cost factor exists in India (0.9 day), followed by Jamaica (1.4 days) and Ghana (1.6 days). Countries with particularly high couple-years of protection cost factors include Honduras (10.3 days) and Zimbabwe (11.6 days). Contraceptive prices relative to a kilogram of rice are highest in Mexico, Zimbabwe, and Honduras and lowest in Bangladesh and India. Condom prices are more than twice the comparable couple-years of protection rate for OCs in Honduras and El Salvador, while there is a price equivalency in the contraceptive costs of these 2 methods in social marketing programs in Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Nepal.^ieng