New Ways to Deliver Family Planning Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Regional Conference

1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Jeanette H. Johnson
Africa ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Price

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.


Author(s):  
Seema Rehman ◽  
Faiza Ahmed

Regardless of the declining rates of fertility in the late twentieth century, the population growth rate in Pakistan is the highest in the region and only surpassed by sub-Saharan Africa across the globe. The main reasons are access for poor women in villages due to shortage of outlets and outreach programs and poor service provision due to lack of equipment, inefficiency to retain staff and overload of other responsibilities like polio campaign. A fear of side effects, health concerns, low female literacy rate, weak women autonomy and high mortality rates are important deterrents from usage of family planning services. Researchers have summed up the difficulties of Pakistan in this matter as, “a reluctance or inability to translate reproductive preferences into appropriate behaviour.” The government and ministries mutual cooperation in articulating policies helps in role clarification with respect to population planning. Advocacy at the district, provincial and federal levels is required counselled by medical research along with social objectives by liaising with states with experience of tackling the same issue to analyze performances based on accomplishment of specific FP indicators.


Author(s):  
Laura Ghiron ◽  
Eric Ramirez-Ferrero ◽  
Rita Badiani ◽  
Regina Benevides ◽  
Alexis Ntabona ◽  
...  

AbstractThe USAID-funded flagship family planning service delivery project named Evidence to Action (E2A) worked from 2011 to 2021 to improve family planning and reproductive health for women and girls across seventeen nations in sub-Saharan Africa using a “scaling-up mindset.” The paper discusses three key lessons emerging from the project’s experience with applying ExpandNet’s systematic approach to scale up. The methodology uses ExpandNet/WHO’s scaling-up framework and guidance tools to design and implement pilot or demonstration projects in ways that look ahead to their future scale-up; develop a scaling-up strategy with local stakeholders; and then strategically manage the scaling-up process. The paper describes how a scaling-up mindset was engendered, first within the project’s technical team in Washington and then how they subsequently sought to build capacity at the country level to support scale-up work throughout E2A’s portfolio of activities. The project worked with local multi-stakeholder resource teams, often led by government officials, to equip them to lead the scale-up of family planning and health system strengthening interventions. Examples from project experience in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda illustrating key concepts are discussed. E2A also established a community of practice on systematic approaches to scale up as a platform for sharing learning across a variety of technical agencies engaged in scale-up work and to create learning opportunities for interacting with thought leaders around critical scale-up issues.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin K. Mutua ◽  
Yohannes D. Wado ◽  
Monica Malata ◽  
Caroline W. Kabiru ◽  
Elsie Akwara ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The use of modern contraception has increased in much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the extent to which changes have occurred across the wealth spectrum among adolescents is not well known. We examine poor-rich gaps in demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods (DFPSm) among sexually active adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) using data from national household surveys. Methods We used recent Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys to describe levels of wealth-related inequalities in DFPSm among sexually active AGYW using an asset index as an indicator of wealth. Further, we used data from countries with more than one survey conducted from 2000 to assess DFPSm trends. We fitted linear models to estimate annual average rate of change (AARC) by country. We fitted random effects regression models to estimate regional AARC in DFPSm. All analysis were stratified by marital status. Results Overall, there was significant wealth-related disparities in DFPSm in West Africa only (17.8 percentage points (pp)) among married AGYW. The disparities were significant in 5 out of 10 countries in Eastern, 2 out of 6 in Central, and 7 out of 12 in West among married AGYW and in 2 out of 6 in Central and 2 out of 9 in West Africa among unmarried AGYW. Overall, DFPSm among married AGYW increased over time in both poorest (AARC = 1.6%, p < 0.001) and richest (AARC = 1.4%, p < 0.001) households and among unmarried AGYW from poorest households (AARC = 0.8%, p = 0.045). DPFSm increased over time among married and unmarried AGYW from poorest households in Eastern (AARC = 2.4%, p < 0.001) and Southern sub-regions (AARC = 2.1%, p = 0.030) respectively. Rwanda and Liberia had the largest increases in DPFSm among married AGYW from poorest (AARC = 5.2%, p < 0.001) and richest (AARC = 5.3%, p < 0.001) households respectively. There were decreasing DFPSm trends among both married (AARC = − 1.7%, p < 0.001) and unmarried (AARC = − 4.7%, p < 0.001) AGYW from poorest households in Mozambique. Conclusion Despite rapid improvements in DFPSm among married AGYW from the poorest households in many SSA countries there have been only modest reductions in wealth-related inequalities. Significant inequalities remain, especially among married AGYW. DFPSm stalled in most sub-regions among unmarried AGYW.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Götmark ◽  
Malte Andersson

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.


2011 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G Cleland ◽  
Robert P Ndugwa ◽  
Eliya M Zulu

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