Social norms and family planning decisions in South Sudan

Kane, Sumit; Kok, Maryse; Rial, Matilda; Matere, Anthony; Dieleman, Marjolein; Broerse, Jacqueline E W

doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3839-6

Cited by 52 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Also, young women are increasingly either overtly or covertly making decision to use family planning methods by themselves [12]. Since this study was only conducted in urban settings of the country where there is high exposure to family planning promotion campaigns and easy access to SRH services, the findings may not be generalized to the whole country in which 83% of the population is rural.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Other studies [12] in the study settings report that the long held notion that families have to be bigger [19] and males have to make decisions on use of contraceptives [8] is fading away. Also, young women are increasingly either overtly or covertly making decision to use family planning methods by themselves [12].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These factors range from individual and social factors, cultural factors, availability, and access factors to factors related to the attributes of the contraceptive methods such as fear of side effects [12,18,19]. There is insufficient evidence to explain how these factors interplay to influence contraceptive use in conflict zones of sub-Saharan Africa, such as that of South Sudan.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two decades of civil war disrupted South Sudan health care system and therefore very little efforts were placed on family planning, even after signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 [6,11]. Family planning services remained underutilized even where the services were made available [10][11][12]. The low uptake of contraceptives in South Sudan is likely to expose women to unplanned pregnancies, inadequate child spacing, and increased risks associated with closed spaced pregnancies and child birth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As of the year 2015, in South Sudan, however, only 6.8% of women of reproductive age use family planning, 2.5% are using the modern methods of family planning, and 4.1% are using the traditional methods of family planning [1,9]. The low contraceptives uptake South Sudan has been a long-standing national issue with little concrete steps taken to address it 2 International Journal of Population Research [10][11][12]. The two decades of civil war disrupted South Sudan health care system and therefore very little efforts were placed on family planning, even after signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 [6,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors Influencing Contraceptives Use among Women in the Juba City of South Sudan

Obwoya

Wulifan

Kalolo³

2018

International Journal of Population Research

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Understanding birth control and child spacing methods used by inhabitants of conflict afflicted settings is important in designing interventions to improve uptake of family planning services. In addressing the dearth of knowledge on family planning use in these settings, this study aimed at identifying the influencing factors of contraceptives use among women in the Juba city of South Sudan. Using a population based cross-sectional study, 380 women aged 15-49 years filled a guided questionnaire between April and May in 2015. We collected contraceptive use data and factors influencing family planning uptake. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression. Lifetime reported contraceptive use stood at 42% whereas contraceptive use in the last three months was 36%. Logistic regression revealed attitudes (AOR = 1.375, 95 CI 1.246-1.518) and parity (AOR = 1.242, 95% CI 1.000-1.544) as significant determinants of lifetime contraceptive use whereas only attitude (AOR = 1.348, < 0.001) determined contraceptive use in last three months. The findings indicate optimal uptake of family planning and point to the influence of attitudes and parity on contraceptive use. Changing attitudes and embedded sociocultural and political structures influencing attitudes is important to promote contraceptive uptake in these settings. BackgroundThe sustainable development goals (SDGs) that replaced the Millennium development goals (MDGs) at the end of 2015 aim at promoting universal access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services [1,2]. One of the main targets to reach the SDGs (3.7 and 5.6) is to promote family planning [1,3]. Also, timely achievement of family planning targets is expected to hasten achievement across 5 SDG themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership [3]. Implementation of family planning interventions, however, is context dependent and the countries with stable sociopolitical infrastructure may be better suited to successfully implement the interventions and achieve the goals than their counterparts in conflict afflicted settings. The conflict afflicted settings often have fragile health systems that can hardly support provision of comprehensive SRH [4][5][6] Current reports on the global contraceptive prevalence rates and unmet needs for family planning indicate overall gains across countries [1]. Despite the overall gains, indicators of slow progress in contraceptive uptake and reduction in unmet needs or family planning are evident in some sub-Saharan African countries [1]. The situation of family planning uptake and unmet needs for family planning in conflicted afflicted areas in the SSA countries presents a picture of serious overlook by the humanitarian actors. In these settings, available evidence indicates low prevalence rates ranging from 4% to 16% and calls for more investment in family planning services for both national and donor country action plans [7,8].The coverage of contraceptives in eastern Africa stands at 40% and is expected to grow to...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Factors Influencing Contraceptives Use among Women in the Juba City of South Sudan

Obwoya

Wulifan

Kalolo³

2018

International Journal of Population Research

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Ethnic Variation in Fertility Preferences in Sub-Saharan Africa

Wildeman

Smits

Schrijner

2023

Popul Res Policy Rev

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Research focusing on the role of ethnicity in shaping fertility preferences in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been largely restricted to small-scale studies within specific groups, regions or countries, which makes it difficult to gain insight into the overall effects of ethnicity on fertility in the region. This study provides a broad comparative analysis of the variation in preferred family size among ethnic groups covering the whole SSA subcontinent. The relationship between ethnicity and family size preferences is analyzed for 500,000 women from 181 ethnic groups in 24 sub-Saharan countries using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and via multilevel Poisson regression analyses. Fertility preferences vary considerably across ethnic groups. Major factors explaining this are gender-related cultural characteristics and educational level at the group level. Interaction analyses showed that the size and direction of these effects are moderated by the women’s individual characteristics. The findings make clear that someone’s ethnic background should be taken into account when looking at fertility patterns and designing policies aimed at changing fertility patterns in the SSA context.

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The role of perceptions and social norms in shaping women’s fertility preferences: a case study from Ethiopia

et al. 2022

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The population–environment–food nexus is a sustainability challenge for the Global South, and for Africa in particular, where rapid human population growth typically overlaps with high levels of food insecurity and environmental degradation. In this context, it is important to understand the reasons driving high fertility in these regions. Here, we examined possible determinants of women’s fertility preferences in rural southwestern Ethiopia. Using a survey tool (n = 120), we assessed women’s perceptions of four key environmental stressors, namely food insecurity, environmental degradation, human population growth, and land scarcity. Through statistical modelling we tested whether there was a relationship between perceptions of future trends in these stressors and women’s fertility preferences; expressed as their desired number of children and use of family planning methods. This analysis was complemented by a qualitative content analysis of the survey’s open-ended questions, to contextualize and interpret the quantitative data. Our quantitative results indicated that perceptions of future trends in key stressors had little effect on fertility preferences of respondents, with the exception of perceptions of human population growth. Our qualitative data suggested that this may be due to the influence of social-cultural norms and religion, decision-making with the husband, as well as a perceived utilitarian value of children. These findings have important implications for the development of interventions to slow down human population growth. Our findings suggest the need to look beyond improved physical access to family planning, and develop a new suite of deliberative approaches that engage with social norms, religion, and gender equity.

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Social norms and family planning decisions in South Sudan

Cited by 52 publications

References 23 publications

Factors Influencing Contraceptives Use among Women in the Juba City of South Sudan

Factors Influencing Contraceptives Use among Women in the Juba City of South Sudan

Ethnic Variation in Fertility Preferences in Sub-Saharan Africa

The role of perceptions and social norms in shaping women’s fertility preferences: a case study from Ethiopia

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