Excess female child mortality in the developing world during the 1970s and 1980s.

"How did...excess female child mortality evolve from the 1970s to the 1980s, during a period when mortality declined significantly? Is there a relationship between the intensity of the phenomenon and levels of mortality or certain social development indicators? These are some of the questions which the article discusses on the basis of reliable and comparable data taken from approximately 60 [developing] countries."

[Comparative evolution in mortality in North Africa from 1960 until today]. / Evolution comparée de la mortalité en Afrique du Nord de 1960 à nos jours.

In this paper, the evolution of mortality since 1960 has been reconstructed for Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. The procedure has been to collect in each country all the existing data (population register, surveys, etc.), to check chronological and spatial cohesion and to estimate reliability, before making a final choice of the best estimates. The mortality transition has started. On the whole, progress has been remarkable during the last 20 years. In 1970 life expectancy was only from 50 to 52 years in the region; today it reaches nearly 70 years in Tunisia, 66 years in Algeria and Morocco, and 64 years in Egypt. Infant mortality has decreased considerably. Differences with regard to child mortality increased between countries. Tunisia maintained first place with the lowest rates. Algerian rates, however, are decreasing and have approached those of Tunisia within the last 10 years. Morocco is still in an intermediate position, and Egypt lags behind. Infant mortality ranges from 55 per 1000 in Tunisia to 80 per 1000 in Egypt. Female overmortality was one of the important characteristics of the region in the years 1960 and 1970. There is a tendency towards a decrease and a concentration in the first years of life (between 1 month and 5 years). But it still exists, denoting a certain sexual discrimination. Progress in North Africa during the 1950s and 1960s has resulted in an intermediate position regarding mortality levels.

[The relationships between population growth and environment: from doctrinal to empirical]. / Relations entre croissance demographique et environnement: du doctrinal a l'empirique.

PIP: This work provides a brief review of changing attitudes toward population growth, the environment, and economic development, and summarizes the major theoretical doctrines concerning the interrelations between rapid population growth and environmental damage and results of research on the topic. The general optimism about the prospects for progress in the Southern hemisphere of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to greater skepticism and recognition of problems in the 1970s. The creation of the UN Population Fund in 1969 and the UN Environmental Program in 1972 reflected increasing concern in the international community about demographic growth and environmental degradation in the south. Economic and social conditions appeared to worsen in the 1980s, with the recession and structural adjustment programs having a disproportionate impact on the most destitute. New integrating concepts and paradigms including that of sustainable development arose in this context of profound crisis in many Third World economics and societies. The most widely accepted position on the connection between population growth and environmental degradation since the late 1970s has been a nuanced neo-Malthusian approach which sees demographic pressure not as the direct cause of environmental problems, but as an aggravating factor. The slowing of population growth is viewed as 1 element in an overall strategy that also includes encouragement of development and elimination of poverty. The extreme positions that rapid population growth is the major cause of environmental degeneration or that population growth has little actual effect on the environment have been largely abandoned. The impact of population growth on the environment can be analyzed at the global, regional, or local level. On the global level, there is agreement that 2 major factors responsible for environmental deterioration are the model of economic development followed in the Northern countries and the poverty of much of the population in the Southern countries. Quantitative studies have been unable to demonstrate at the global level that demographic growth has a primordial effect on the environment. The ecological consequences of poverty cannot be reduced without attacking poverty itself, of which high fertility is but 1 aspect. A growing but still insufficient number of smaller scale studies suggest that demographic growth is not always the major element in environmental damage or in preventable exhaustion of resources. Specific studies are needed on well-defined populations in order to unravel the effects of population growth and other factors. The approach should be systemic and transdisciplinary, depending on a less fragmented vision of reality than that reflected in traditional disciplinary boundaries.^ieng

[African population growth: status and prospects]. / La croissance demographique de l'Afrique: bilan et perspectives.

PIP: Despite great improvements over the past several years, the quality of demographic data in Africa is still a problem, and Africa remains the least well known continent. Population growth is extremely rapid, with all countries growing at annual rates of over 3%. The natural increase rate even shows some signs of increasing slightly in the next decade or so. Africa's population was estimated at 220 million in 1950, 650 million at present, and is projected at 1.5 billion by 2025. Africans represented 9% of the world population in 1960, but will increase to 19% around 2025. The rapid population growth is the result of declining mortality since the 1950s unmatched by changes in fertility. There are significant socioeconomic and rural-urban mortality differentials in Africa, but as yet only highly educated urbanites have measurably reduced their family size. 2 consequences of this rapid growth are the youth of the population, with almost 50% under 20 years, and its high density in some areas. By 2025, 18 countries will have densities of over 100 persons per sq km. Almost everywhere in Africa, family sizes are at least 6 children/woman. 3 factors explaining this high level of fertility are the earliness and universality of marriage, rates of contraceptive usage of only 4-10% in most countries, and declining durations of breast feeding and sexual abstinence, which traditionally served as brakes on fertility. As a rule, women marry young and remain married until the end of their reproductive years. Divorce and widowhood are common, but remarriage is usually rapid if the woman is still of reproductive age. Life expectancy at birth in sub-Saharan Africa has increased from some 36 years around 1950 to 50 years at present. Progress in control of mortality, and especially infant mortality, has been slower than expected, and Africa still has by far the lowest life expectancy of any major region. Regional, rural-urban, and socioeconomic mortality differentials are considerable and sometimes increasing. In some countries the gaps in life expectancy between rural and urban residents or between social classes are as high as 15 or 20 years. The major causes of death have scarcely changed in 2 or 3 decades: diarrhea, measles, acute respiratory infections, tetanus, malaria, all aggravated by malnutrition and the new scourge of AIDS. Migration and urbanization remain major components of family survival strategies. The increasing pace of urbanization has brought a decline in urban living standards. About half of the world's refugees and displaced persons are in Africa. It was not its demography that brought Africa to its current position of underdevelopment, but population will exercise enormous pressure on available resources. Already for the continents as a whole, food production is increasing less rapidly than population. The challenges are immense: from now until 2000, the working age population will increase by 49% and the school age population (6-11 years) by 58%.^ieng

[Explanatory approach to child mortality. Reflections and perspectives]. / L'approche explicative en matiere de mortalite des enfants. Reflesions et perspectives.

PIP: After 1st stressing the complexity of explaining child mortality, a short overview of the various approaches to the problem is given. Included in the overview is research undertaken in different areas directly or indirectly concerned--particularly epidemiology and demography, but also in medical sciences, medical sociology, and anthropology. The purpose of this review is to point out the lack of coherence and shortcomings of research. Are they really explanatory or merely descriptive? Do they use the relevant techniques of observation and statistical analysis according to the objectives: Are they well integrated, without ambiguity, into the framework of a methodologically coherent thought? To many of these questions, the answer is often negative. To the partitioning of the different sciences concerning child mortality, this paper opposes the absolute necessity of a multidisciplinary approach, which should at the same time carry on the theoretical reflection on the cause of this complex phenomenon, and elaborate all research programs on the matter. (author's modified)^ieng