Fighting poverty through family planning

from IPP Media Tanzania

By Deodatus Mfugale

Mseko sat in front of his humbo house, a hut really, his eight children around him. The children were aged between two and 12 and none of them had started school, even the eldest one, a girl.

At 12 years old, there was no hope that the girl would see the inside of a classroom. It was very likely that Mseko would marry her off to get a few shillings in dowry in order to keep things going.

His wife was not at home. She had gone to her in-laws in another village to deliver their ninth child and Mseko remained hopeful that all would go well.

There was no dispensary in the village and the nearest was 50 kilometres away.

It was late morning and the family had only eaten some boiled cassava for breakfast which would also pass for lunch.

With a family of ten which would soon be bigger by one more person, Mseko cannot provide his children with all their needs, including food, a good house and education.

This would have been possible if he had a smaller family because he and his wife would have more time to work and produce more food for the family.

They could also have time to engage in other activities that would earn them an income and so be able to bring up healthy children.

Yet the problem might not be with Mseko and his wife.

How much do they know about family planning methods?

Where would they get such information?
As Tanzania joins the rest of the world to mark the World Population Day today, we all have to do a bit of soul searching to see how we can help the poor to access family planning information and services so that they live a dignified life.

Unfortunately, and this is the case in many developing countries, where only urban dwellers have is access to these services.

But as this year`s theme says, Family Planning: It`s a right, let`s make it real. Indeed family planning is a human right and making it real means enabling everyone to access the services whether they are rich or poor, whether they live in a village of a city.

Realising this right means making everyone aware of the importance of family planning in relation to poverty reduction, among other things.

When couples decide how many children they would like to have and at what interval, they have in mind sharing the resources they have among the children so that each of them will get the best care, including nutrition and education.

The also have in mind raising the quality of life by fighting poverty. This is possible because mothers can also join the labour force and earn an income for the family instead of only depending on the man`s earnings.

Where both parents are peasants, family planning enables the woman to join the man in farming activities so that they can produce more food for the family and sell the surplus to meet other needs. What we see here is the fact that for poor families, a woman`s health is of utmost economic importance.

``Women make up more than half of the agricultural force in developing countries. They grow 80 per cent of staple crops in Africa and in South East Asia; 90 per cent of rice growers are women,`` says a recent publication of UNFPA.

It stresses the need for families to have fewer, healthier children so as to be able to reduce the economic burden and allow parents to invest more in each child`s care and at the same time fight poverty.

But again, this can only be achieved if women are educated and become aware of the importance of family planning programmes.

Families with fewer children can spend more on the health and education of each child given the resources available.

The importance of family planning does not end up at the family level but has impacts on the national economy at large.

Countries with large populations and a high population growth rate often find it difficult to provide matching social services while those with small populations and a slow population growth rate helps to cut the cost of social services.

This is because few children attend school; more people are healthy and so don`t have to seek health services very often.

There is also less demand for water, food, housing and transportation which allows governments provide better social services.

The important thing here is that with a small population the government is better placed to invest its resources in the provision of quality social services.

Talk about resources, huge populations have also a negative impact on a country`s natural resources.

``Africa is a land of increasing population and rapidly changing land use patterns.Sustaining a reasonably high economic growth rate to match the human population growth rate coupled with ensuring the environmental and natural resources integrity is one of the key challenges being addressed by NEPAD,`` says former President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment Andre Okombi Salissa.

What we see here is that lack of implemention of family planning programmes is an economic burden not only to families but also to governments as a fast growing population increases pressure on the natural wealth, natural resources like water, land, and the environment.

The population problem is a continental issue. The starting point should be empowering women through access to reproductive health,information and services.

Healthy women can effectively help to reduce poverty and there is enough evidence to show that investing in women`s empowerment can produce a multiplier effect.

Experts say that women in the age bracket of 15 and 49 years contribute enormously to their families, communities and countries as in most families they are either primary or contributory bread winners.

Thus investing in women through education, reproductive health and economic rights can trigger progress on poverty reduction and sustainable development.

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