Population Dynamics
As of the year 2011, seven billion people now live on Earth. Much has to be done in order to reduce poverty, to provide universal access to health care and family planning, and to decrease our high consumption of resources. This is where DSW steps in with its development programmes and advocacy work.
Many women give birth to more children than they want due to a lack of contraceptives and effective family planning. With the implementation of our Youth-to-Youth Initiative, we are educating thousands of young people in Africa about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and on how to create a healthy and independent future for themselves.
Furthermore, DSW's comprehensive advocacy work is done by talking to and engaging with national, local and international political authorities. In our dialogue we advocate for the necessity of voluntary family planning and reproductive health.
Family Planning
Since 1968, the right to family planning has been internationally recognized as a human right. In spite of the success achieved over recent decades, the right to decide on the best time to become pregnant and the number of children is still denied to too many women and men - most of all in developing countries.
Surveys have found that many women have more children than they would actually like to have. The discrepancy between the desired and the actual number of children is highest in Latin America and lowest in sub-Saharan African countries. But also here there is a trend towards having lower numbers of children: today, couples in Kenya would like to have an average of 4.9 children, as opposed to eight in 1979.
Unmet need for family planning
The number of pregnancies in developing countries would immediately drop by approximately 20 per cent if the unmet need for family planning were to be met. More than 215 million women in the less developed regions of the world still have no access to safe and effective family planning methods.
Worldwide, 62 per cent of married women plan their families in some way. In developing countries, the number is roughly 60 per cent. In contrast, only 23 per cent of women in sub-Saharan Africa use contraception.
An increasing number of people would like to use contraception. Furthermore, the number of people of reproductive age will increase over the coming years. By 2015, the number of people who would like to use contraception is expected to increase by 40 per cent.
Today, approximately one third of world population growth is attributable to unwanted pregnancies.
