Modern contraception has played a significant role in reducing maternal and child mortality. The study was aimed at assessing the knowledge and practice of modern contraception among agro-pastoral women in the Jigjiga district of the Somali regional state. The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative research design. A total of 383 agro-pastoral women between the ages of 15 and 49 years who were married were randomly taken from 11 kebeles (the smallest administrative unit). The data were collected through a structured and pre-tested questionnaire via the face-to-face interview technique by trained enumerators. Frequency and percentage were used to analyze the collected data. The study found that 21.1% of agro-pastoral women respondents were aware of modern contraception methods. Despite this fact, the prevalence of modern contraception at the time of data collection was 4.7%. Injectables and pills were the modern contraception used by most of the respondent women. The result of the study shows the low level of modern contraception utilization which calls for strong measures to let the agro-pastoral women use various methods. Therefore, it is important to have an awareness creation campaign to motivate women to use modern contraception and improve the family planning service provision in the region.
Keywords: Agro-pastoral women; Jigjiga district; Somali Regional State; modern contraception; prevalence.