home > by publication type > podcasts > Conley: Sub-Saharan Africa's Population Explosion
Email
| Interviewee: | Dalton Conley |
|---|---|
| Interviewer: | Stephanie Hanson |
July 17, 2007
A new report from the UN Population Fund says that sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate. Dalton Conley, chair of sociology at New York University, discusses the implications of this trend for sub-Saharan Africa’s future population growth and economic development. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest fertility rates in the world, and there is little evidence to suggest those rates are decreasing. However, people are quickly moving from rural to urban areas, and the UN report argues that Africa’s rapid urbanization will help reduce fertility rates by giving women increased access to family planning and reproductive clinics. Conley says women have greater economic opportunities in urban areas, a more likely reason for fertility rate reductions than access to contraceptives. He also notes that urban fertility rates in sub-Saharan Africa are still higher than rural fertility rates in much of the rest of the world.
The consequences of not getting fertility rates under control are “enormous,” he says. “Western donors and the local governments could gild the roads in gold there but it's not going to make a difference at these rates of population growth.” He foresees more famine, as well as more conflict, as a result of population pressures. Due to the political sensitivity of reducing fertility rates, Conley argues that policymakers should focus on reducing child mortality. Though this proposal is “counterintuitive,” he says it is the “single best birth control there is.”
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
I understand that I may access this podcast solely for my personal use. Any other use of the file and its content, including display, distribution, reproduction, or alteration in any form for any purpose, whether commercial, noncommercial, educational, or promotional, is expressly prohibited without the written permission of the copyright owner, the Council on Foreign Relations. For more information, write webmaster@cfr.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
