An Energy-Saving Development Initiative Increases Birth Rate and Childhood Malnutrition in Rural Ethiopia

Abstract:  Despite improving living conditions and reduced infant mortality, rural Africa has not experienced the rapid demographic transition to low birth rates that characterize populations in the developed world. With the aid of new development initiatives, living and health conditions have been improving and death rates are falling, but birth rates remain high and the population is growing rapidly. Africa's population density is projected to double over the next 50 years, rising from 26 to 60 people/km2; over the same interval Europe's will drop from 32 to 27 people/km2. In Ethiopia, the population has been growing by two million a year; however, a poor economic growth rate of around 3% per annum will sustain existing services for less than a third of the future population. Spiralling population growth and slow economic growth are the main factors fuelling the country's repeated humanitarian crises. Global economic events, local culture, and biology can all strongly influence the pace of demographic change. The majority of the demographic literature concerns economic models of fertility decline; economic development is seen as the catalyst for declining birth rates. However, in the twenty-first century, many of the poorest nations, such as Ethiopia, face slow or stagnant economic growth rates. Furthermore, family planning uptake remains low, due to patchy distribution, poor understanding, and social opposition. In rural Ethiopia less than four percent of women use modern forms of family planning. In the vast majority of so-called “natural fertility” populations, with limited resources and poor access to contraception, biology may also play an important role in explaining rising fertility. Citation: Gibson MA, Mace R (2006) An Energy-Saving Development Initiative Increases Birth Rate and Childhood Malnutrition in Rural Ethiopia. PLoS Med 3(4): e87. doi:10.1371/journal. pmed.0030087