Family planning programmes and fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa
Mbacke, C.
Population and Development Review 20(1): 188-193
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0098-7921 Document Number: 382811
The US National Academy of Sciences study on Population Dynamics of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) provides an update on demographic change in the region. The study shows that demographic transition is under way in Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, at least and that it may have begun in Nigeria and Senegal. Fertility transition is likely to have commenced in Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland and is well documented in South Africa. It is assumed that economic development is a precondition for fertility decline, either by increasing demand for small family size or weakening the resilient sociocultural barriers to use of modern contraceptives. The trends in SSA attest to the inadequacy of the prevailing formulation of demographic transition theory. New theory suggests that economic hardship is contributing to the reduction of ideal family size in the region. The lack of a clear relationship between infant mortality decline and fertility decline at the district level also calls into question the assumption that the former is a precondition for the latter. Understanding the African social supports for high fertility as a rational response to historical circumstances and not a peculiar expression of African cultures and social organization is a necessary condition both for advancing demographic transition theory and for designing culturally sound family planning programmes. The study holds that, despite the evidence of pervasive increases in contraceptive use and fertility decline in Kenya, further declines are contingent on improvements in child survival and in female education.