The Persistence of High Fertility in sub‐Saharan Africa: A Comment

Abstract

The US National Academy of Sciences Panel on the Population Dynamics of Sub-Saharan Africa met for the first time in February 1990 in Washington DC to launch a major initiative aimed at deepening understanding of demographic change in the subcontinent. The initiative produced a total seven volumes including a set of reports providing an in-depth analysis of various aspects of African socioeconomic and demographic trends and two country-specific reports. These showed that outside of South Africa where the transition was well established fertility remained very high (generally above 6 children per woman) in much of the continent but that unquestionable signs of country-level decline were visible in a few countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe. My review of the papers included in the main report Demographic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (Foote Hill and Martin 1993) argued that high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was not a peculiar expression of African cultures but a rational response to the continent’s specific circumstances and that changes in those circumstances could usher in a new era (Mbacke 1994). Twenty-five years later in July 2015 and at the same location the Workshop on Recent Trends in Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was held to take stock of the same topic at a time when the continent’s leaders have started paying serious attention to fertility as a key factor in economic development. Armed with richer and better-quality data than was available in the early 1990s when Africa’s fertility transition was just starting the papers presented at the workshop—many of which appear in revised form in this volume—provide a rich picture of the changes that occurred over the quarter-century and of the factors behind them. The papers also discuss the policy implications and the potential for harnessing a demographic dividend in support of the continent’s development. This commentary will focus on the “African exceptionalism” that is a thread throughout a number of the chapters in this volume. (excerpt)