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EA’s population waiting to explode

Saturday January 26 2013
population

A crowd on Nairobi’s Haile Selassie Avenue. Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is expected to double to almost two billion by 2050. Photo/Phoebe Okall

In Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Njenga slum, 29-year-old Pamela Awino lives in a two by two metres shanty with her husband and three children. Her other three died of health complications in infancy as they were born at close intervals.

All her children are frail because, as Awino puts it, they hardly have enough to eat. “I am tired of constantly giving birth; I have no money to adequately provide for their needs; I wish someone could raise these children for me,” she says.

Awino’s life offers a glimpse into East Africa’s future, if its current population growth trend is not curtailed.

The United Nations estimates that sub-Saharan Africa’s population will double to almost two billion by 2050. And experts warn this will have adverse consequences for the region.

Alex Ezeh, the executive director of the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), says that if a country’s population grows too fast, its economic development stagnates and the government is unable to set up basic infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and roads.

“We are better off with a small population of healthy, educated and productive citizens who can compete globally than billions who are poor and hungry,” says Dr Ezeh.

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East Africa is already grappling with a bulge of unemployed youth and is far from achieving most of its Millennium Development Goals, with governments still relying heavily on donor funding to finance core activities.

Dr Ezeh notes that a decline in population growth can be achieved by increasing the use of modern family planning methods among women of reproductive age.

It is estimated that if women have on average two children, then the population size will begin reducing and finally stabilise.

ALSO READ: Tanzania alarm over expected population boom

Dr Eliyah Zulu, the executive director of the African Institute for Development Policy, notes that modern family planning methods — such as pills, injections, implants and intra-uterine devices — will also improve the region’s health status.

According to the 2012 World Health Organisation statistics, unsafe abortions resulted in 13,000 maternal deaths in Eastern Africa.

“Contraceptives can prevent such deaths by enabling women to conceive only when they are ready and want to have children,” says Dr Zulu.

He adds that contraceptives also empower women to space their births accordingly. As revealed by the Lancet 2012 special series on family planning, children born two years after a previous pregnancy are 60 per cent less likely to die in infancy.

ALSO READ: Access to family planning in Africa is good but the uptake is slow

Dr Zulu acknowledges that family planning could improve child survival by delaying the age at which women have their first pregnancy.

Evidence has shown that babies born to mothers below 20 are more likely to be premature, have low birth weight and suffer from delivery complications.

“But due to lack of awareness of their importance, many women are still not using contraceptives,” notes Mercy Kamau of Tupange, an urban reproductive health initiative in Kenya.

She says that some fear going against their husbands wishes while others hold on to negative myths or religious doctrines on contraceptive use.

Dr Zulu notes that governments should have the political will to invest in family planning as a key development tool.

“But we must also educate women, address health concerns and cultural barriers that prevent them from using family planning methods,” he says, adding that integrating birth control methods with other health services such as HIV and malaria will ensure many women are reached.

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