scholarly journals Trends in fertility and fertility preferences in sub-Saharan Africa: the roles of education and family planning programs

Genus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bongaarts
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Family Planning Programs ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Desired Family Size ◽  
Dhs Surveys

Abstract A common explanation for the high fertility prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a widespread desire for large families. This situation poses a challenge to population policy-makers in the continent. If the desired family size is high, then presumably family planning programs can only have a limited effect on fertility because these programs aim to assist women in achieving their reproductive goals. But this conclusion is based on the assumption that family planning programs do not affect the desired family size, which is questionable and is investigated here. This study examines the determinants of trends wanted and unwanted fertility in SSA using fixed-effects regressions of country-level data. The dependent variables include the total fertility rate, and its wanted and unwanted components. Explanatory variables include a family planning program score and four socioeconomic variables (women’s educational attainment, child mortality, GNI per capita, and percent urban). Data come from 103 DHS surveys in 25 countries in SSA with at least two DHS surveys between 1989 and 2019. Women’s education and family planning programs are found to be the dominant determinants of fertility decline and their effects operate by reducing both wanted and unwanted fertility. The effects of education are not surprising but the finding that family planning programs can reduce wanted fertility implies that their impact can be larger than conventional wisdom suggests. Indeed, in a few poor countries, the implementation of high-quality programs has been associated with substantial declines in wanted fertility (e.g., Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda). The mechanism through which this effect operates is unclear but likely involves media programs that diffuse knowledge about the benefits of smaller families.

The changing value of children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya

Africa ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Price
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Central Province ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
Family Planning Services ◽  
Value Of Children ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Demand For Children

Within demography, high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was considered until recently to reflect a demand for children firmly rooted in indigenous social institutions, which were resistant to external forces of change. On the basis of findings from recent Demographic and Health Surveys, Caldwell et al. (1992) suggest that many of the institutional supports for high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa—such as lineage-based descent systems, polygyny, bridewealth, extended kinship structures, child fostering, and communal land tenure—are being eroded. This article considers changes in the value of children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya, and the extent to which the social institutions which have traditionally supported high fertility have persisted. Fieldwork undertaken in two ethnically homogenous communities, one rural and one peri-urban, reveals significant variation in the fertility motives and value of children in the two communities. In the rural community many of the indigenous social supports for high fertility, although modified, cohere. In the context of economic insecurity and lack of access to land (especially for women without sons), manipulation of customary kinship and marriage practices (supported by the persistence of many indigenous religious beliefs and ideologies about fertility) has become strategically important for realising fertility desires. There is, however, unmet demand for modern contraception, due largely to lack of access to and the poor quality of family planning services. In contrast, in the peri-urban community, where access to family planning services is relatively good, there has been effective legitimation of fertility regulation and the use of modern contraception is widespread. There is markedly less economic insecurity: wage labour opportunities are available, and some women have successfully challenged male control over land. Consequently, there is reduced demand for children, although a number of the indigenous cultural supports for high : fertility retain residual importance.

scholarly journals Human fertility in relation to education, economy, religion, contraception, and family planning programs

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Götmark ◽  
Malte Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
World Population ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Health Food ◽  
Family Planning Programs ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Background The world population is expected to increase greatly this century, aggravating current problems related to climate, health, food security, biodiversity, energy and other vital resources. Population growth depends strongly on total fertility rate (TFR), but the relative importance of factors that influence fertility needs more study. Methods We analyze recent levels of fertility in relation to five factors: education (mean school years for females), economy (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita), religiosity, contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), and strength of family planning programs. We compare six global regions: E Europe, W Europe and related countries, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. In total, 141 countries are included in the analysis. We estimate the strength of relationships between TFR and the five factors by correlation or regression and present the results graphically. Results In decreasing order of strength, fertility (TFR) correlates negatively with education, CPR, and GDP per capita, and positively with religiosity. Europe deviates from other regions in several ways, e.g. TFR increases with education and decreases with religiosity in W Europe. TFR decreases with increasing strength of family planning programs in three regions, but only weakly so in a fourth, Sub-Saharan Africa (the two European regions lacked such programs). Most factors correlated with TFR are also correlated with each other. In particular, education correlates positively with GDP per capita but negatively with religiosity, which is also negatively related to contraception and GDP per capita. Conclusions These results help identify factors of likely importance for TFR in global regions and countries. More work is needed to establish causality and relative importance of the factors. Our novel quantitative analysis of TFR suggests that religiosity may counteract the ongoing decline of fertility in some regions and countries.

scholarly journals High fertility level in Sub-Saharan Africa: implication for reaping and optimizing demographic dividend

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 3698
Author(s):  
Adebayo K. Sunmola ◽  
Johnson S. Olaosebikan ◽  
Temitope J. Adeusi
Keyword(s):  
Population Policy ◽  
Child Survival ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Early Marriage ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Fertility Level ◽  
Demographic Dividend ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Sub Saharan

Africa region remains the continent with the highest total fertility rate among other major regions of the world such as Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America and Oceania. This paper examines the determinants of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa; it also determines the policy implication for reaping and optimizing demographic dividend. Secondary data sources were employed in achieving the set objectives. This paper submitted that determinants such as age at first marriage; high child mortality; low female education; gender preference; and limited birth spacing were the determinants of high fertility in Africa. For Africa to harness the demographic dividend, certain policy implications such as investment in child survival and health programmes; investment in quantity and quality of education; multi-sectoral approaches and meeting infrastructural development; enhance job market and enact and enforce laws to prevent early marriage among other policy programmes must be embraced. The paper concludes that there is high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa because of the in-built population momentum of the populace. Also, fertility must be reduced significantly if sub-Saharan Africa must reap and optimize the promising dividend. This paper, therefore, recommends that all government in Africa continent should come up with and implement effective population policy that will help to reduce high fertility level.

Fragile, Threatened, and Still Urgently Needed: Family Planning Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Jacobstein ◽  
Lynn Bakamjian ◽  
John M. Pile ◽  
Jane Wickstrom
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Family Planning Programs ◽  
Sub Saharan

scholarly journals Prospects for accelerated fertility decline in Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Cleland
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
World Population ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Rapid Population Growth ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Slow Pace ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The One

The future size of world population depends critically on what happens in sub-Saharan Africa, the one remaining region with high fertility and rapid population growth. The United Nations envisages a continuing slow pace of fertility change, from five births per woman today to three by mid-century, in which case the population of the region will increase by over one billion. However, an accelerated decline is feasible, particularly in east Africa. The main grounds for optimism include rising international concern and funding for family planning (after fifteen years of neglect), and favourable shifts in the attitudes of political leaders in Africa. The examples of Ethiopia and Rwanda show political will and efficient programmes can stimulate rapid reproductive change.

Determinants and Consequences of Population Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Sergey Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Child Mortality ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Rapid Population Growth ◽  
Family Planning Programs

During the universal demographic transition, the traditional type of population reproduction, characterized by high mortality and high fertility, is transformed into a type of reproduction in which both components are at a low level. The demographic transition is not taking place in a social vacuum, but under the influence of many social factors, including the growth of education and economic development. Reducing child mortality is a sine qua non for changing reproductive behavior. Declines in mortality and fertility are usually separated by long periods when population growth is accelerating. The population explosion is fading away in most countries of Asia and Latin America because they have passed the main part of the demographic transition. In Africa, the decline in child mortality began later and is still in the incipient phase. As a result, fertility, although declining in recent decades in most countries, is declining slowly and remains high. The region as a whole is in the early stage of the demographic transition: the population is growing rapidly and it is not expected to stabilize until the end of the century. Most of the economic and social consequences of rapid population growth are negative. Their conceptualization takes place within the framework of the neo-Malthusian paradigm, which made it possible to substantiate demographic policy based on family planning programs that have proven their effectiveness in different regions of the world. The negative, and sometimes disastrous, consequences of rapid population growth are particularly pronounced in Africa. Anti-Malthusianism is less inclined towards scientific argumentation, and its main goal is not pragmatic solutions to problems, but ideological proclamations, although some anti-Malthusian concepts have positive potential. The concept of the demographic dividend, developed in recent decades, makes it possible to remove the contradictions between two opposing paradigms, since it shifts the emphasis from the negative consequences of rapid population growth to the positive consequences of changes in the population age structure during the demographic transition. The demographic transition in Africa needs to be accelerated, and policies are able to do this without relying on the impractical assumptions of fast economic growth. Three interrelated factors are critical: development of education, radical reduction in child mortality and strengthening of family planning programs.

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