POPULATION DECREASE:
Through family planning
By
Albert Letting
Christine Njuguna
Yvonne Adhiambo
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Introduction
Aim:
• Demonstrate the effects of population control through the use of
contraceptives. How does this lead to population decrease?
Outline:
• History of contraceptives use in Kenya
• Population dynamics in Kenya
• Comparison with Singapore
• Long run consequences
• Recommendations
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Family Planning
• What is contraception?
Contraception is the use of various devices,
drugs,agents,sexual practices,or surgical procedures to
prevent conception.
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Types of contraceptives
• Combined Oral Contraceptives(COCs)
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Implants
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Copper Intrauterine Device (Cu IUD)
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Barrier Methods
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History of contraceptives use in Kenya
• The first birth control clinic was opened in Nairobi, 44 years ago.
The second one opened a year later in 1956 at the Port Town of
Mombasa.
• A report entitled “Family Planning in Kenya” was produced in 1965
and approved by the cabinet. The government subsequently
announced the adoption of FP as part of its development policy.
• In the early 1980s President Moi’s leadership encouraged reduction
in the population and budgetary allocations were made for family
planning services. The Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1984 on Population
Policy Guidelines spelt out the direction the government wanted to
take in relation to enactment and enforcement of relevant laws on
how population issues should be treated.
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Population Growth rate statistics-Kenya (19712010)
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
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1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Total population-Kenya (1971-2010)
45,000,000.00
40,000,000.00
35,000,000.00
30,000,000.00
25,000,000.00
20,000,000.00
15,000,000.00
10,000,000.00
5,000,000.00
0.00
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2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
Fertility Rate-Kenya(1971-2010)
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Singapore :Historical developments of family
planning
• Since the mid-1960s, Singapore's government has attempted to
control the country's rate of population growth with a mixture of
publicity, exhortation, and material incentives and disincentives.
• 1949, family planning services were offered by the private
Singapore Family Planning Association, which by 1960 was
receiving some government funds and assistance.
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Historical developments
• 1965 :The crude birth rate was 29.5 per 1,000 and the annual rate
of natural increase had been reduced to 2.5 percent. Singapore's
government saw rapid population growth as a threat to living
standards and political stability, as large numbers of children and
young people threatened to overwhelm the schools, the medical
services, and the ability of the economy to generate employment
for them all.
• 1957 to 1970: Birth rates fell , but then began to rise as women of
the postwar baby boom reached child-bearing years. The
government responded with policies intended to further reduce
the birth rate.
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Population disincentives
• Abortion and voluntary sterilization were legalized in 1970.
Between 1969 and 1972, a set of policies known as "population
disincentives" were instituted to raise the costs of bearing
third, fourth, and subsequent children
• Civil servants received no paid maternity leave for third and
subsequent children; maternity hospitals charged progressively
higher fees for each additional birth; and income tax deductions
for all but the first two children were eliminated.
• Fertility declined throughout the 1970s, reaching the replacement
level of 1.006 in 1975, and thereafter declining below that level.
With fertility below the replacement level, the population would
after some fifty years begin to decline unless supplemented by
immigration.
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The social problem
• The failure of female university graduates to marry and bear
children, attributed in part to the apparent preference of male
university graduates for less highly educated wives, was singled
out by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1983 as a serious social
problem.
• In 1986 the government also decided to revamp its family planning
program to reflect its identification of the low birth rate as one of
the country's most serious problems. The old family planning
slogan of "Stop at Two" was replaced by "Have Three or More, if You
Can Afford It."
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Then to remedy
• The government introduced a new package of incentives:
Tax rebates for third children, subsidies for daycare, priority in
school enrollment for children from large families,
• Pregnant women were to be offered increased counseling to
discourage "abortions of convenience" or sterilization after the
birth of one or two children.
• Despite these measures, the mid-1986 to mid-1987 total fertility
rate reached a historic low of 1.44 children per woman, far short
of the replacement level of 2.1. The government reacted in
October 1987 by urging Singaporeans not to "passively watch
ourselves going extinct."
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Age Pyramid of Resident Population
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Old Age Support Ratio
(Persons aged 20-64 years per elderly aged 65 years
& over)
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Age specific fertility rates
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Long run consequences
• The inability of the population to replace itself. When the fertility
rate is below the replacement level we begin to face possibilities
such as extinction in the long run
• Restraint of economic growth due to the reduction of labor input.
This emerges with the advance of an aging population and a
decline in the younger population.
• The emergence of sexual crisis among the youth. The gradual shift
in understanding of the role of sexuality as they have found a
scapegoat in contraceptives.
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Recommendations
• Looking at the population growth as a source of human capital that
we could use as a stepping stone to alleviate poverty and help
speed up economic growth.
• Instead of the looking for ways to increase employment, it should
equip the population through education to create their own
employment using entrepreneurship.
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