Fertility In sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa: Status and Prospects

This discussion of fertility decline in sub-Saharan Africa is based on a review of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) volumes on demographic change in sub-Saharan Africa. The seven NAS volumes are viewed as committee products that expand knowledge through a broad social science view. Chapters 3 4 and 5 were criticized as disappointing due to unconvincing conclusions inappropriate treatment and uneven quality. This review focuses on whether a decline in fertility has occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and whether family planning was a chief instrument in this decline. It is concluded that the weakest part of the NAS volumes pertained to future expectations and desirable research and policy interventions. The 1993 NAS volumes addressed demographic change demographic effects of economic reversals effects of health programs on mortality factors affecting contraceptive use population dynamics of Kenya population dynamics of Senegal and the social dynamics of adolescent fertility. The volume on demographic change is described as complete but repeats material from previously published articles. Substantial fertility decline is identified in NAS for Botswana Zimbabwe and Kenya but not elsewhere in west and middle Africa. Evidence of different patterns in contraceptive use is alluded to without a detailed examination. NAS neglects to address the difference in patriarchal control over resources that differentiate eastern from western Africa and may constitute the single most important determinant of contrasting times for the onset of fertility transition. The volumes generally are criticized for sensitivity to subregional patterns. Generalizations were made in the NAS volume to all of Africa when data pertained exclusively to western Africa. The extent of contraceptive use among unmarried women was not given the proper attention. A better understanding of fertility declines in Botswana and Zimbabwe would have accounted for their inclusion within the South African economic system which was not as sensitive to the economic adjustments that occurred in Ghana Nigeria and Zaire. An index was needed for all seven volumes and an additional volume was needed on southern Africa.

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

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

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.

Gonococcal infection and human fertility in sub-Saharan Africa.

An analysis is presented of the influence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae on human population growth in regions of sub-Saharan Africa where gonococcal infections are prevalent in sexually active adults. Combining epidemiological and demographic data within the framework of a mathematical model, we show that gonorrhoea has a major impact on fertility and, concomitantly, on net population growth in areas with a high prevalence of untreated infections. Specifically, a 20% prevalence in sexually active adults is predicted to induce a 50% reduction in net population growth. Model predictions are in good agreement with observed data from Uganda, and the sensitivity of the prediction to various complications, such as heterogeneity in sexual behaviour, is assessed. The analysis suggests that the predicted increase in fertility arising from expanded sexually transmitted disease (STD) control programmes in Africa to help combat the spread of human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-1 and HIV-2) will help to offset the predicted demographic impact of AIDS in the worst afflicted areas. In other areas the rise in fertility associated with effective STD control will need to be countered by the linkage of STD control programmes with family planning initiatives.

High Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

The persistence of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa while all other world regions have been able to control population growth represents a grave threat. Tradtional explanations for this phenomenon--e.g. lower levels of income education health and urbanization--are not adequate given the fact that many Asian countries have been able to reduce fertility in the face of the same obstacles. It is suggested instead that the primary cause of sub-Saharan Africas high fertility can be found in its social and family patterns. Central cultural precepts include the notions that many descendents must be produced to ensure the survival of lineage the equation of female virtue with the production of a large number of children the stronger influence of the lineage than the nuclear family and a belief in the power of ancestral spirits. Given the overriding importance of lineage and the relative weakness of emotional and economic conjugal links the factors believed to be producing lowered birth rates in other developed countries (e.g. the high costs of child raising and the negative impact of large family size on the standard of living in that family) are not operable in sub-Saharan Africa. Most African fathers receive far more from their children in terms of loyalty and support than they expend on them giving them little motivation to restrict fertility. Womens growing determination to extend their current economic independence into the domain of reproduction represents the most likely source of change in sub-Saharan Africas fertility patterns. Also essential is reduced infant and child mortality through integrated health services-family planning programs. Progress can be expected to be slow however given the persistence of the African traditional social structure and belief system.

Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Soft Underbelly of Development: Demographic Transition in Conditions of Limited Economic Change

Population policy is driven by two sets of theories, which are examined here. The first, demographic transition theory, proclaims the inevitability of a global transition from high to low birth and death rates as a world society and economy develop. Experience to date supports this generalization, but researchers have had little success in identifying threshold socioeconomic or demographic indexes that would predict the onset of fertility decline. The second, demographic-economic theory, predicts that slower population growth rates will lead to faster rises in per capita income. The historical evidence does not confirm these predictions, however. This paper examines the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, where mortality has been falling consistently, although often driven more by educational and other social changes than by rising incomes or enhanced medical care, and halted only by war and civil disorder. However, declining fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa is not a certainty, despite population projections by international organizations that assume that widespread decline is imminent. Evidence indicates that African fertility is peculiarly sensitive to infant and child mortality levels, and therefore amenable to decline through service-intensive combined health and family planning programs; but it is not clear that governments can implement such programs on a national scale. On the demographic-economic nexus, some evidence suggests that in Sub-Saharan Africa high levels of natural population increase do slow growth in per capita income. Family planning programs might also catalyze changes in family social and economic structures that would contribute to faster economic growth. Finally, as the full scale of the African AIDS epidemic becomes clearer, it will come to dominate all other population-related concerns, creating a compelling case for huge expenditures on comprehensive health, family planning, and social services aimed at reducing mortality, curing sexually transmitted diseases, detecting HIV infection, and providing follow-up services.

The Cultural Context of High Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa may offer greater resistance to fertility decline than any other world region as a result of a lineage-based traditional belief system. Traditional African religious values have sustained high fertility in 2 ways: 1stthey have acted directly to equate fertility with virtue and reproductive failure with sin and 2nd they have provided support for a system of upward flows of wealth. The African family structure generally places reproductive decision making in the hands of the husband and the economic burden for the support of children on the shoulders of the wife. Because of the weakness of the conjugal bond men tend not to realize the full burden of reproductive decisions. Thus reproductive decisions and behavior are only loosely related to the subsequent dependency burden. On the other hand there are signs of a destabilization of this high fertility system. At the individual level growing numbers of women in sub-Sahara Africa are facing economic difficulties and would like to take defensive action to limit births. At the national level there are recurrent problems with faltering economic growth and uncertain food supplies. Secular influences such as models of the family taught by the media and the schools may help make the conjugal family more dominant than homage to living ancestors. The demand for female contraceptive methods in sub-Sahara Africa is likely to grow. The pill and the IUD will probably be most employed but a demand for injectables and implants can be expected as well. However the authors predict that radical fertility declines should not be expected in sub-Saharan Africa during this century. In the absence of radical change in government attitudes toward family planning the crude birth rate is not likely to fall from its present level of 47/1000 to much less than 45/1000 by the year 2000.

The Proximate Determinants of Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Rapid population growth has played an important role in producing the poor economic conditions that exist today in sub - Saharan Africa. However, in the past, few governments have expressed concern about demographic developments such as this. This is now changing and effective policies are being sought to reduce excessive fertility in order to effect a decline in the rate of population growth. The policy design and implementation of such policies would benefit from an understanding of the socioeconomic, cultural, biological and environmental factors that determine fertility. This paper seeks to provide such an understanding by assessing the proximate determinants of fertility. It is concluded that a rapid decline in fertility is unlikely to occur in the near future, partly because desired family size is very high and partly because upward pressure on fertility levels will result from the erosion of traditional childspacing practices of postpartum abstinence and prolonged breastfeeding, or from decline in levels of pathological sterility in response to public health measures.

Cultural Traditions, Social Change, and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Because there is growing evidence of interest in increasing the level and scope of activities in family planning programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, we believe that it is important to examine some of the assumptions under which these are being undertaken. In what is one of the poorest areas of the world, particularly in terms of health resources and educational facilities, with enormous gaps of trained personnel in both, the programmes already in existence have not been a notable success. Yet a rapidly expanding population quickly outpaces what efforts have been made in health and education, and there is now a growing concern that food supplies, particularly in West Africa, may soon enter a period of chronic shortage.