High fertility and development in Cameroon

Abstract

Many scholars of development, in sub Saharan Africa especially, have come to perceive increases in the African population as a threat to what is an already precarious balance between people and scarce natural resources, as well as being a handicap to general development in the region. Since the population increase trails behind food production and economic growth, there is severe population pressure on the environment as people try to scratch a living from the soil. This is also accompanied by the decline of per capita income and quality of life.



Thus, the population hawk position (Teitelbaum 1975) maintains that the unrestrained population growth in Africa is the principal cause of poverty, malnutrition, environmental disruption and other social problems. This paper explores how family planning can be implemented in ways that would produce more positive results and enhance development in Cameroon.



Journal of Social Development in Africa Vol 16 No 1 2001, pp. 23-42