Dear all:

Some of the news articles have blamed this famine on overpopulation.  I certainly understand how 
Heather can come to the same conclusion.  Having worked for many years in these situations, 
however, I find the reality is quite different and this isbacked up by demography research.

Most European countries had incredibly high infant and child mortality rates and also high fertility
rates.  The fertility rates only dropped once the infant and child mortality rates dropped.  This is
called the demographic transition and now you can see this same transition occuring in many
parts of the world.  At a certain level, having appropriate child spacing programs can also
complement the drop in infant and child mortality.  Bangladesh is an example of a country where
the infant and child mortality rates dropped, but very good programs have helped the
demographic transition happen faster.

Unfortunately, Niger is not anywhere close to being able to undergo that transition.  Women must
have faith that their children will survive.  If you were in an area where you saw every fourth or
fifth baby die you would have a hard time feeling secure in your children surviving.  You might
want to have a few extra to make sure that some would survive.  In this country we are not
routinely used to seeing children die.  In NIger, it is an every day occurrance.  Even if the mortality
rates were lower, the second  issue is accessibiltity to birth control.  Its not happening there.
Finally, maternal mortality rates are exceedingly high there as well.

So, knowing the situation there well, I would say that it is the other way around.  Women are
having children because their babies starve.  Some of them are having babies even though they
would prefer not to because their is no birth control around.  Now - this is where the exclusivity of
the breastfeeding would be a big help in child spacing programs.

What is particularly insidious about this type of reporting that blames these women is that
Nigerien women are probably living under some of the toughest conditions on the planet.  They
walk incredible distances to collect water, they walk incredible distances to collect firewood.
There is little to eat, so most of them are extremely malnourished themselves.  One of the
programs there that finally had great success in increasing their iron stores stopped placing the
blame on these women not doing enough and started looking at what was around these women.
They worked on the DADS to buy liver snacks for their wives when pregnant.  You must start with
the surrounding structure to support these women.  The one thing I will say about the culture is
that I don't think these women have much choice at all about getting pregnant or not.  Any child
spacing program in Niger would need to be targeted to the Dad.


Best regards. Susan Burger.

Kwashiorkor is a Ghanaian word - where they practice abrupt weaning.

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