An Enduring Institution? Child Fostering in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Child fostering has been documented over time in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We know little, however, about how the prevalence of fostering differs across countries and broad regions, nor about how fostering-and its predictors-has changed within countries over time. To explore prevalence, trends, and predictors of child fostering, I leverage Demographic and Health Survey data of mothers of children aged 0-15 from 139 surveys in 36 countries collected between 1986 and 2019, representing all regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Results suggest striking variation in the prevalence of contemporary fostering, ranging from 11.5 percent of mothers in Burundi to 45.7 percent in Namibia in the most recent survey. Fostering trends have fluctuated over time in the majority of countries, but have remained broadly stable, with random and fixed-effects models indicating that the key correlates across and within countries over time have remained stable, with the prevalence of never-married motherhood playing a key role in fostering. Together, results suggest child fostering remains an enduring institution in family life throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Child Fostering and Family Size Preferences in Uganda

“…Child out-fostering, referring to children living apart from their biological parents, is common throughout sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda (Cotton 2021;Beegle et al 2010;McDaniel and Zulu 1996;Page 1989;Isiugo-Abanihe 1985). In many sub-Saharan African countries, children are fostered-out not only for crisis reasons-such as parental death from AIDS or other causes-but also voluntarily by parents to expand educational opportunities, to provide domestic assistance to relatives, or to spread the costs and responsibilities of childrearing throughout larger kin networks (Alber 2018;Akresh 2009;Eloundou-Enyegue and Shapiro 2004;Bledsoe 1990;Page 1989;Isiugo-Abanihe 1985).…”

“…Through the colonial period and afterward, children were also sent away from their parents to pursue education, either in boarding school or with relatives who could provide educational opportunities (Doyle 2013;Warrington 2013;Sembajwe 1977;Ainsworth 1967). In contemporary Uganda, out-fostering remains common, with more than one-third of Ugandan mothers fostering-out at least one child, a far higher prevalence of out-fostering than its neighbors in East Africa (Cotton 2021).…”

“…As fertility behaviors change, out-fostering arrangements may similarly decline in use and importance, as Ugandan families may move toward a more nuclear family structure and the roles of social and kin networks may change in the lives of mothers and their children. Alternatively, given the prominent role of out-fostering in Uganda and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa (Cotton 2021;Cheney 2017Cheney , 2016Doyle 2016;Stephens 2013;Whyte and Whyte 2004), out-fostering may provide an ongoing helping hand to mothers, regardless of how many children they have or desire.…”

“…Child out‐fostering, referring to children living apart from their biological parents, is common throughout sub‐Saharan Africa, including Uganda (Cotton 2021; Beegle et al. 2010; McDaniel and Zulu 1996; Page 1989; Isiugo‐Abanihe 1985).…”

“…Drawing on Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data collected in Uganda between 1988 and 2016, I examine the association between exceeding IFS and fostering-out children for mothers and children, looking at both overall associations and how these relationships may have changed over the course of approximately 30 years of fertility transition. In countries like Uganda, where fostering has long served as a social safety net for children (Cotton 2021;Cheney 2017Cheney , 2016Doyle 2016;Stephens 2009), out-fostering may act as a socially accepted means of managing excess fertility, allowing mothers to reduce the potential burden of having more children than desired.…”