Gambia - Youthful Population
- Created by: Sam Bridgwater
- Created on: 25-04-14 18:27
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- Gambia - Youthful Population
- Reasons for large families
- Religious and cultural reasons
- 95% Muslim population - mainly against the use of contraception
- Small families are culturally taboo - tradition dictates large families, people will not deviate from this otherwise they risk being cast out of community/family
- High infant mortality
- People have many children to ensure they have enough children to help economically and several children may die to poor healthcare and nutrition
- Economic reasons
- Many live in rural areas - grow crops for subsistence and small amount of cash
- Religious and cultural reasons
- Population structure
- BR - 3x more than MEDCs
- Many dies before 40
- 11 mothers die for every 1000 children born
- 73/1000 - 33rd highest IMR in world
- Life expectency - Men = 53 Women = 57
- Population will double every 28 yrs at current rate
- High dependency ratio - 45% under 15, 3% over 65, 52% working age (16-65)
- Problems caused by youthful population and high birth rate
- Lack of social infrastructure - roads in Serakunda (largest city) are unpaved
- Small houses - 9 people to 1 room
- Electricity is very expensive
- Massive unemployment due to rapidly increasing population
- School resources - 3000 children in 26 classrooms - schools operate in two shifts - teachers work 12 hour shifts - lack of toilets
- More people = higher resource use - desertification has occurred due to high deforestation
- At current rate the forests will dissapper within 50 years - among poorest people in the world - Stage 2/3 of DTM
- Solutions
- Contraception awareness campaign
- TV then radio campaign to reach more people - there is also a weekly radio phone in on the topic of family planning
- Support from NGOs such as Futures - helped to provide contraceptives to rural areas - 1/2 million sold in first 8 months
- EFFECT - population growth rate on 1993 = 4.3 - in 2005 = 3
- Education
- EFFECT - All children now go to school and attendance has doubled in past 10 years - foreign NGOs help fund education
- As people become more educated, they understand more about better diets and may also be able to find better jobs = SUSTAINABLE
- Improved maternal and child health
- Received bilateral aid from Canada - vaccinations for all children against illnesses such as TB, whooping cough, Hep B, yellow fever and measles
- Birth spacing encouraged which improves mothers health and also means fewer children
- Counselling has improved - discussing health used to be taboo, it is now culturally acceptable and men are taking more of a part in family planning also
- EFFECT - TFR was 7 in 1990, by 2010 it had fallen to 4.8
- Contraception awareness campaign
- Reasons for large families
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