TITLE:
Fertility Regulation in Burkina Faso: Refusal to Impose a Fixed Number of Children per Woman, But Attitudes in Favour of Lower Fertility
AUTHORS:
Aristide Romaric Bado, Jean-Pierre Guengant, Hamidou I. Maga, Lamoussa R. Zoma, Ibrahim Tall, Fatima Tidiani/Kandine
KEYWORDS:
Fertility Control, Three Children Per Woman, Statement, Parliamentarians, West Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
17,
2023
ABSTRACT: Context: Meeting in Ouagadougou in 2017, Burkina Faso,
parliamentarians from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS, 15
countries), Mauritania and Chad “invited
ECOWAS countries, Mauritania and Chad to work towards reducing their
respective total fertility rates to no more than three children per woman by
2030” and to promote really viable and sustainable development. Has this
declaration been well received by the population? This is the question that our
research attempts to answer through research conducted in Burkina Faso. Methodology: The research was conducted in several regions of Burkina Faso. It is a mixed
study with a quantitative and a qualitative component to analyze the perceptions of the respondents on their
appreciation of the ECOWAS parliamentarians’ declaration on 3 children per
woman. Results: The results in Burkina Faso showed that 31% of men and
41% of women agreed with the suggestion to stop when reaching three children.
Conversely, 45% of the men and 39% of women surveyed were against “stopping at
three children”. The results of this study clearly indicate that the idea of
controlling the size of one’s family is much more widely supported than that might be assumed. Conclusion: The debate between the supporters and opponents of birth control within couples is still ongoing. However, fertility control issues are still taboo
subjects, little discussed by researchers and policy makers.