TO
KAYORO
Bringing Reproductive Health to a Village in Ghana
MARGARET CATLEY-CARLSON
POPULATION COUNCIL
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FROM TO KAYORO Bringing Reproductive Health to a Village in Ghana
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| The powerful impact
of population momentum. Indeed, momentum will account for nearly all future population growth in countries where fertility already has reached replacement level—Sri Lanka, for example—and for well over half of the projected population growth in India and Bangladesh. In Kayoro village, momentum will account for less, because it will be overshadowed by high numbers of children desired and a great unmet need for contraception. But with half of Kayoro’s population under the age of 15, momentum will nevertheless be a major factor. Momentum can be influenced by a package of investments affecting mainly girls that will delay the age of childbearing and promote spacing of children. Investments that could have an impact on momentum include an emphasis on education; income-earning activities, especially those related to micro-credit programs; and gender training.
It should also be noted that small differences in the post-transitional fertility numbers will make enormous differences in the population picture in the long run. For example, if India’s fertility stabilizes at about half a birth below replacement, population size a century from now would be about where it is now—0.9 billion, instead of the 1.9 billion presently forecast. If fertility were to stabilize at half a birth above the replacement rate, the population in 2100 would be 3 billion. Modest efforts to reduce fertility have large effects on future growth. Many see the Cairo Consensus approach as down-playing traditional demographic concerns. In some ways it does. The Population Council’s research over four decades strongly suggests the need to address demographic concerns through a broad range of programs that encompass but are not limited to family planning. High-quality family planning and reproductive health services help to reduce unplanned and unwanted childbearing. This unmet need, of course, is exactly where Kayoro women are starting, but they have a long way to go. It would be a great mistake, however, to measure the fertility transition solely in
quantitative terms without paying attention to improvements—or lack of them—in
the status of women and gender equity in Kayoro.
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