Fertility Decline In Africa Research Articles

Prospects for accelerated fertility decline in Africa

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.

Prospects for Fertility Decline in Africa

Prospects for Fertility Decline in Africa

Fertility Desires and the Course of Fertility Decline in sub‐Saharan Africa

This research has two main goals: (i) to examine fertility desires (number of children) in sub-Saharan Africa: levels as compared to other major regions and recent trends; and (ii) to assess the extent to which fertility decline in sub-Saharan Africa is contingent on decline in fertility desires (singly and in combination with other reproductive changes).

Birth intervals, postponement, and fertility decline in Africa: A new type of transition?

We investigated birth-interval dynamics in 24 African countries using data from 76 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted since 1986. Controlling for selection bias in the birth-history data using the Brass–Juárez method and regression models produced almost identical results. Birth intervals have lengthened in every country examined. This analysis uncovered a distinctive and previously undocumented pattern of childbearing that is prevalent across sub-Saharan Africa. After allowing for time trends in birth-interval length, the lengthening of birth intervals in almost every country varies little by women's age or parity. Moreover, in several countries, birth intervals are now too long to be explicable by birth spacing contingent on the age of women's youngest child. Rather, women are postponing births for other reasons. These findings offer empirical support for the idea that the fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa is following a different pattern from that observed elsewhere.

Reproducing in Cities

Reproducing in cities has always been costly, leading to lower fertility (that is, lower birth rates) in urban than in rural areas. Historically, although cities provided job opportunities, initially residents incurred the penalty of higher infant mortality, but as mortality rates fell at the end of the 19th century, European birth rates began to plummet. Fertility decline in Africa only started recently and has been dramatic in some cities. Here it is argued that both historical and evolutionary demographers are interpreting fertility declines across the globe in terms of the relative costs of child rearing, which increase to allow children to outcompete their peers. Now largely free from the fear of early death, postindustrial societies may create an environment that generates runaway parental investment, which will continue to drive fertility ever lower.

Child schooling and contraceptive use in rural Africa: A Ghanaian case study

In this study, I examine the contributions of children’s schooling to fertility decline in Africa. I use cross-sectional data collected in the late 1980s to look at how household child schooling patterns and community access to schools affect contraceptive use among rural Ghanaian women. My results indicate that the schooling of children is associated very strongly with increased use of modern and traditional contraceptive use and thereby suggest that educational policy has played a role in initiating and sustaining fertility decline in Ghana and possibly elsewhere in Africa.

Participatory technology, policy and institutional development to address soil fertility degradation in Africa

At global scale nutrient flows are unbalanced, resulting in huge surpluses in Western Europe versus negative balances in Africa. Existing policy and socio-economic environments in different parts of the world are the major cause of this situation. At lower spatial scales, a much more complex and diverse picture emerges. In Sub-Saharan Africa, different levels and causes of soil fertility decline are found among agro-ecological zones, soil types, farm systems, wealth groups, urban–rural households, cash and food crops, home fields and bush fields. Technology development has been the traditional response to address nutrient imbalances in general, and soil fertility decline in Africa in particular. Farm households have continued to develop and adapt existing technology to changing situations. National and international research institutions have followed a variety of changing approaches of which the recently developed participatory approaches have yielded some impressive results in isolated cases. These efforts have, however, not led to the necessary massive reversion of the trend in soil fertility decline. The Dutch policies on nutrient use and the Indonesian policy to adopt Integrated Pest Management are two examples, associated with such major trend reversions. This suggests that promoting and supporting participatory technologies have limited impact when no attention is paid to participatory policy development and implementation. In order to mobilise farm households in a trend reversion, a number of conditions should be met such as stable prices for agricultural outputs, better input/output prices ratios, influence of land users on the research agenda and private-public initiatives focused on smallholders. This observation calls for the establishment of interactive landusers-science-policy triangles at various scales (local, national and international) in which joint learning and mediating may lead to more informed decision making, more focused design of an agricultural sector policy, implementation of policies by effective institutions, and appropriate technology development and implementation. Interventions need to be reoriented: less technology development, more policy influence and institution building.

The Socio-Cultural Context of Family and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

The conclusion reached in this examination of fertility and family formation patterns in sub-Saharan Africa is that researchers and policymakers cannot assume that a unique population program can be developed and be successful in all regions and cultures. Socioeconomic factors and cultural factors vary between and within regions. The effect of economic crisis and of AIDS transmission is unknown. Demographic transition theory has not effectively accounted for the lack of fertility decline in Africa. Mortality levels have declined but not fertility. Even with national family planning programs womens use of contraceptives is low. There is a persistent preference for large families. Research has recommended policies which emphasize female education in order to lower the demand for children. Womens groups and grass roots mobilization must be engaged to promote and implement family planning. Womens autonomy in decision making needs to be encouraged by programs; economic independence from husbands needs to be secured for women. An overview is provided of the theoretical framework of fertility. Discussion focuses on factors affecting fertility in sub-Saharan Africa: the impact on supply and demand factors from individual socioeconomic differences and the cultural context. Attention is also given to African reproductive trends African population policies and future recommendations and research needs. Africa has had the highest fertility in the world i.e. 6-7 children/woman. There are short breast-feeding durations and short postpartum abstinence periods. Rwanda has the highest fertility currently and Kenyas fertility has dropped from the distinction of being the highest. Population growth is the highest because of a decline in mortality. Data from the World Fertility Surveys and Demographics Surveys have helped to develop a more complex view of the interaction between demographic and economic factors and fertility decline. Proximate determinants have been identified. By 1984 most governments had developed explicit population policies on birth spacing and integrated programs with appeal to the educated and urban population.

Fertility Decline in Africa: A New Type of Transition?

Botswana Zimbabwe and Kenya appeared in 1990 to be experiencing fertility declines of 15-25% and there is some 1991 evidence that parts of Nigeria experienced fertility declines of over 10%. These trends are in contrast to the widely held belief that sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world not experiencing fertility transition. The nature of the African fertility transition is characterized and the reasons for resistance to fertility decline are summarized. The type of fertility transition specific to Africa is discussed and followed by a detailed account of the 1990 Ado-Ekiti Fertility Study in Ondo State in northeastern Nigeria. The study is presented in terms of the contraceptive providers the population surveyed social changes occurring in the region the use of contraception among unmarried women and the demand for fertility control. The Ado-Ekiti experience suggests that contraceptive use has increased due to a National Population Policy which has provided a plentiful supply of a variety of methods through family planning clinics and private distributors and has legitimized family planning for women as a moral right. Availability of family planning methods was not the only influence on fertility reduction. There had been unmet demand for 20 years and massive economic and social change. There arose a demand by young unmarried women for fertility control as age at marriage increased. Female education affected young unmarrieds and married women who substituted contraception for abstinence for birth spacing. Urbanization was another influence fed by economic growth. The Ado-Ekiti experience suggests that contraceptives should be readily available to all particularly young single teenage girls and women for child spacing; women must be recognized as leaders in urging and practing contraception even without their partners knowledge. Privacy in obtaining supplies must be provided. The rising demand is being fed by education and an increasingly modern economy. The unique feature of Africas transition is the uniformity among all ages; the patterns will not follow the Asian or European pattern.