Demographic policy, family planning and the fertility transition in Africa
Vimard, P.
La Chronique du Ceped 36: 1-4
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 1157-4186 PMID: 12178217 Document Number: 324017
Africa¿s mean total fertility rate (TFR) of 5.1 children per woman is far higher than the TFRs of 3.2 in Asia and 2.7 in Latin America. The level of modern contraceptive use in Africa is barely 16%, compared to over 55% upon other developing country continents. Demographic transition is nonetheless currently well underway in Africa, in keeping with progress achieved in contraception. Ever since the end of the 1980s, demographic research has confirmed the beginning of fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa and its rapid progress in the Maghreb. Concurrently, most African countries are in the process of adopting population policies, following in the path of pioneering nations such as Tunisia, Kenya, and Ghana. The analysis of fertility-related policies is important to better understand how they explain a new concept of relations between development and demography, and influence the evolution of birth rates in Africa, and therefore the demographic, social, and economic histories of the continent. The discussion of the implementation of fertility-related population policies examines the first such policies as well as those created more or less directly out of crisis and economic recession.