Poverty and population Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Poverty and population - Essay Example The results by the UN indicate that Africa is facing a boom in its population, which is almost quadrupling by the end of this century. The current fertility rate of African Women is at 4.7. The question arising is that if Africa is unable to feed a billion people, how then could it be in a position to feed four billion in future? This topic is important in the topic of global reproductive health since with increased population and poverty; access to high-quality hospital services may not be possible. As a result, childbearing women may suffer from various illnesses of the reproductive systems (Avery, 2014). Moreover, such impoverished women living in deplorable conditions suffer from various unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, maternal disabilities and even deaths, gender-based violence and other problems that relate to the reproductive system and unhealthy sexual behaviors. Africa needs to adopt various strategies to deal with their increased population growth and poverty. They need to have better infrastructure, education system, and health care system. This is because there is emerging fears that the increasing boom of the population is likely to deplete what is left of the flora and the fauna of such African countries (Birdsall, Kelley, & Sinding, 2011). Thus, it is important for the various strategies to be in place to ensure that poverty is reduced in some of these high population countries. One of the main strategies of poverty reduction is investing in reproductive health of women, educating them and ensuring gender equality. This ensures poverty reduction in several ways. One of them is enabling women to bear fewer children thus contributing to an upward economic mobility. Due to this, they stimulate economic development in their countries. Secondly, women are able to negotiate their reproductive health decisions with their men (Ahlburg, Kelley, & Mason, 2009). This move ensures that women can be in a position