AFRICA
Malawi

Malawi, in east Africa, is the site of an intervention to learn how new ideas about such matters as family size and disease prevention spread from one community to another.  In collaboration with Susan Watkins of the University of Pennsylvania, the African Population and Health Research Center and the Population Council are investigating how new ideas get spread about family size limitation, use of family planning, and adoption of preventive measures against HIV/AIDS. In demographic terms, this is known as diffusion of ideas, and the focus is on how informal social interactions operate to bring about change.

The specific goals are to understand the patterns and history of social interaction and ideational change in the selected communities and to examine the relative effect of social networks and individual characteristics (such as level of education and labor force participation) on the adoption of the small family size ideal, on modern contraceptive use, and on the adoption of protective measures against AIDS. In addition, researchers will study whether patterns of social interaction are selective with respect to family planning and sexual behavior in relation to AIDS.

Projects

• Assessing and Improving the Measurement of Sexual Behaviors

• Plotting a Safe, Healthy, and Prosperous Path to Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study of Schooling Quality and Experience in Malawi

• Sexual and Gender-based Violence in East and Southern Africa

• FRONTIERS project

  • The Potential for Sustainability of Malaria in Pregnancy Initiatives (MIP): Lessons Learned from Two USAID-funded Malaria in Pregnancy Initiatives in East and Southern Africa

• Horizons project

  • A Retrospective Assessment of the COPE 1 Program in Namwera, Mangochi District, Malawi

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This page updated 14 March 2008

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