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Recent trends in fertility in Botswana
Author(s) -
Diamond Ian,
Rutenberg Naomi
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.3380070110
Subject(s) - fertility , family planning , total fertility rate , population , arable land , birth rate , demography , geography , socioeconomics , agriculture , economics , sociology , archaeology , research methodology
Fertility trends in Botswana have been the subject of much debate in recent years as a number of surveys in the mid to late 1980s suggested that a fertility decline was under way. This paper first reviews the demographic evidence for a fertility decline and argues that the magnitude of the decline was rather less than some commentators had suggested. The paper then places the trends in fertility in the social and economic context of Botswana in the 1980s. It is argued that there could have been a short‐term decline in childbearing as a result of economic crises brought on by a major drought and helped by the government of Botswana's strategies to alleviate the effects of the drought on its people.