Abstract
Family planning is one o f the most cost-effective health interventions to reduce maternal mortality. In addition, the benefits of family planning can be seen in the reduction of infant and child mortality as well as poverty, and in the empowerment of women to exercise their reproductive choices. In many parts of the developing world, organized family planning programs have been effective in reducing fertility and affecting population growth. During fertility declines, the resulting changes in the age structure of the population can provide countries with a demographic window of opportunity, which can help them grow economically if able to benefit from a first demographic dividend (DD). This is exactly what should be happening in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the region’s population continues to grow rapidly and access to family planning is still limited or totally unavailable to many women. As a result, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest fertility in the world, the lowest contraceptive prevalence rates, and the poorest women’s health indicators . Only realistic access to correct information and expansion of the range of available contraceptive methods can accelerate fertility decline and bring changes in the age structure composition of the population, thus allowing countries to capture a first DD. At the same time, this would also help to improve women’s health in SSA and allow societies to develop at a faster pace.
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Prata, N. (2017). Access to Family Planning and Women’s Health. In: Groth, H., May, J. (eds) Africa's Population: In Search of a Demographic Dividend. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46889-1_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46889-1_14
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