This project supports the dissertation research of a student from Emory University. The project involves an ethnographic study of fertility decision making in sub-Saharan Africa. The main objective is to understand the complex processes of how men and women decide to have children. The role of men in family planning has been largely overlooked in programs promoting contraception. This research will test the hypothesis that men play an important role in reproductive decision-making, part of a complex calculation and negotiation between actors carried out under the constraints within which they live. Through structured and semi-structured interviews, individual case studies and intensive observation of family planning program implementation, they study will explore the nature of human decisions about fertility. This research is important because it will advance the nation's expertise about this important region of the world, as well as improve our understanding of the fundamental causes of population growth in this area. Africa is a region of intense poverty and high population growth, and advances in our understanding of the causes of variations in fertility among particular populations will be of immense utility in designing programs to improve the balance between population and resources.
