Finnish Official Development Aid for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

Finland is one of the donor countries that is most supportive in family planning (FP), Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and gender issues. This study examines Finnish ODA for FP and SRHR: its decision-making structure, other stakeholders and funding levels. Data consists of documents from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) and interviews conducted at the MFA and with other experts. While Parliament decides on the overall level of ODA funding, the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development has considerable autonomy. Other stakeholders such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population and Development and the Family Federation of Finland (Vestliitto) engage in advocacy work and have influenced development policy. Although the Development Policy 2007 mentions the importance of health and SRHR issues and HIV/AIDS is a cross-cutting issue, interviewees stated that the importance of health and SRHR in ODA has declined and that the implementation of cross-cutting issues is challenging. Multilateral funding for UNFPA, UNAIDS and GFATM, and thus the proportion of SRHR funding within the health sector, is however currently rising. Funding for population-related activities has increased and represented 4.8% of Finlands total ODA in 2009. Almost all of this funding is directed towards basic reproductive health and HIV/AIDS issues and the majority is directed through multilateral channels (78% in 2009), mainly UNFPA and UNAIDS. IPPF, Ipas and Marie Stopes International also receive support

HIV/AIDS: the major demographic challenge of Namibia

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Fertility decline in North-Central Namibia

This study examines fertility decline in North-Central Namibia in the period 1960-2000. A Scandinavian-type parish-register system, established in the beginning of 20th Century and still in use, provided register-based data for fertility analysis. Fertility decline began in 1980, was rapid in the 1980s, levelled off in the early 1990s, started again in 1994 and continued until the year 2000. Fertility declined in every age group, except among the 15-19 year olds, whose fertility increased. Cohort fertility started to decline among the 1940-44 birth cohort. During the 1980s, fertility decline was associated with increasing age at first marriage and declining marital fertility, connected to e.g. the War of Independence. During the 1990s, an increase in both the use of contraceptives and HIV-prevalence contributed to the fertility decline.AIDS/HIV, cohort fertility, contraception, fertility decline, Namibia, parish registers, period fertility, Sub-Saharan Africa

The Causes of Changes in Fertility in Northern Namibia: Ovamboland,1927–2010, and Kavango Region,1935–1979

The main aim of this study was to analyse fertility change in Ovamboland (North-Central Namibia) (1927–2010) and the Kavango region (North-East Namibia) (1935–1979) in Northern Namibia. According to the results, the fertility change was quite similar in both areas: fertility declined during the 1950s compared to the preceding period, 1935–1949. We can assume that the main reason for this early fertility decline was changes in the number of migrant workers (out-migration), which caused changes in both the marriage age and birth intervals. In both Ovamboland and in the Kavango region, fertility increased from the late 1950s into the early 1960s and the fertility transition started at the end of the 1970s. In both areas, the increase in fertility during thelate 1950s and early 1960s was probably due to the improved health situation. Fertility transition started at the end of the 1970s, but mortality had already started to decline before that. The main causes of this declining fertility at the end of the 1970s and during the 1980s were improved access to modern methods of contraception and probably also the increased level of education. As a result of the HIV epidemic, mortality increased in Ovamboland at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s. The declining fertility in the same period was probably linked to this increased mortality due to AIDS, while the increased fertility after 2008 is, in turn, probably linked to management of the HIV epidemic

Change in Marriage Behaviour in North-Central Namibia 1925–2009

Namibia is the only country in Africa for which historical data is available to describe the change in marriage behavior since the 1920s. The aim of this article is to describe and to understand how the age at first marriage changed and how it was related to cohabitation since the 1920s in Namibia. The description of changes is based on parish register material and the family reconstitution method. The mean age at first marriage was over 20 for both sexes as early as the 1920s. In 1945–49, the mean age at first marriage started to increase, reaching about 29 for men and 24 for women at the end of the 1950s. The explanation for the increase was labor migration. The new cohabitation model was introduced from the end of the 1970s to the 1980s. Features of this model were cohabitation before marriage, late marriage age, a low married proportion of the population and high proportion of premarital births

HIV and Fertility Decline in North-Central Namibia 1980-2004

The aim of this study was to estimate the development of fertility and the impact of HIV on this development in North-Central Namibia from 1980 to 2004. The main sources of data consisted of parish registers for eight Evangelical Lutheran congregations, the 1992 and 2000 Namibia Demographic and Health Surveys and the 1991 and 2001 population censuses. Developments in fertility were studied using the total fertility rate (TFR), age-speci? c fertility rates (ASFR), and standardized fertility distributions. The results show that fertility declined from 5.0 in 1980-89 to 4.1 in 1990-99 and to 3.5 in 2000-04. Among women in the 25-29 age group and older, fertility declined, while fertility among adolescents increased. Both age at ? rst marriage and premarital fertility increased during the study period. During the 1990s, HIV infection explained 25-29% of the decline in total fertility. If mortality continues to increase as a result of the HIV epidemic while fertility continues to decline, both because of HIV infection and for other societal reasons, the implications for future population growth rates and the countrys demographic structure are pronounced