KATHMANDU: The first National Conference on Family Planning has been scheduled to take place on March 18-19 in Kathmandu.

With the theme ‘Family Planning; Reaching the Unreached’, the conference will be participated by around 200 people to be organized by the Family Welfare Division, Department of Health Services under the Ministry of Health and Population.

The conference, which is expected to be a milestone in increasing people’s access to family planning programs, has been supported by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as the major financial and technical assistance contributor.

Nepal’s reproductive rate in 1996 was 4.6 percent and the figure dropped to 2.3 in 2016, according UNFPA.