UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
ISO: KEN
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The electronic preparation of this document has been done by the
Population Information Network(POPIN) of the United Nations Population
Division in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme
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AS WRITTEN
STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE VICE-PRESIDENT AND MINISTER FOR PLANNING
AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA, PROF, GEORGE SAlTOTI,
AT THE 1NTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT HELD IN
CAIRO, EGYPT SEPTEMBER 5TH - 13TH, 1994
Mr.Chairman,
Your Excellencies,
The Secretary General of this Conference, Dr, Nafis Sadik, Distinguished
Delagates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On Behalf of my delegation and my own Behalf, allow me .to convey
to you, Mr., Chairman, and through you to this conference, the greetings
and best wishes of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya
I also take this opportunity to congratulate the Secretary-General of
the Conference, Dr, Nafis Sadik, and the entire Secretariat, for the
able manner they have managed the Conference preparations, in the same
vein, I would like to express my profound gratitude and that of my
delegation to the Government and the friendly people of the Arab
Republic of Egypt, for the warm welcome and wonderful hospitality
accorded to us, since our arrival in this historic and beautiful city of
Cairo,
Mr. Chairman,
The holding of this Conference in Egypt is not only an honour to
this great country and African continent as a whole, but also, the venue
serves appropriately to focus the attention of the world on the enormous
developmental problems afflicting Africa, and the developing countries
in general, This meeting is being held at a time when most African
countries including my country Kenya, are going through various economic
hardships of great magnitudes, Some of these developmental problems such
as deteriorating terms of trade, the balance of payments and domestic
fiscal crises which have been occasioned by these events, have forced
many countries into heavy borrowing, sometimes followed by failure to
service external debts, as well as undertaking onerous but most
necessary, structural adjustment programmes, The short term costs of
these efforts have been high and the timing of the long term benefits
sometimes uncertain, as attested to by the recent reports of
institutions as varied in philosophical perspective as world bank and
Oxfam.
Additional development problems include the shortage of investment
and development capital, unemployment, poverty and environmental
degradation, Not all of these problems necessarily emanate from the
increased numbers of our populations, although they may be marginally
correlated, and therefore their solutions may lie elsewhere, It is my
hope that this Conference will provide us with not only measures of how
to manage our populations beneficially, but ways of meaningfully
developing and transforming our economies, without eroding the ethical
and moral fiber of our societies.
Mr. Chairman,
The world population is estimated at 5,6 billion, most of these
people live in developing nations. Given the large base, the annual
population increments will continue to be high and are likely to remain
so, for some time in the future.
However, these international trends should not be a reason for us
to feel pessimistic and discouraged as to the future of our world. While
some of the figures may be discouraging especially for Africa,
significant accomplishments have been recorded in the areas of lowering
birth and death rates, improving the general levels of education and
incomes, including the education and status of women, and more
importantly, positive changes have occured in attitudes greater demand
for family planning information and services at the grass-roots level,
All these accomplishments must have contributed positively towards
slowing down the global population growth rate. However, this should not
give us a reason to be lax but should provide us with the enthusiasm to
work harder towards achieving better results in the future, especially
in areas that registered discouraging results, Mr, Chairman, permit me,
before I turn to other matters before us, to give a short brief on how
my country has performed since the last Conference in 1984,
Mr. Chairman,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Had I been standing here
before this assembly some fifteen years ago, I would have been talking
about a country with the highest rate of population growth in the world
now instead, I can talk of a country well in demographic transition, In
1979, Kenya's population growth rate was estimated at 3,9 per cent, The
total fertility rate was 7,9, It was 5,4 by ,l993, But even this
conceals the full dynamic change, In 1979, total fertility rates in
rural and urban locations were 8.1 and 6.6 respectively. These had, by
1993, decreased to 5.8 and 3.4. Such dramatic changes in such a short
period, truly signal demographic transition. The rate of population
growth is now still quite high at 3,1 per cent but, with the changes
that underlie these fertility rates, our target of 2.5 Per cent by the
year 2000 is highly likely,
Various factors account for the success in our population
programmes in the 1980's among them the family planning information and
services linked to education and the general improvement in the women
status, enabling women to participate in all aspects of development.
Combined with this has been the use of modern family planning methods,
Contraceptive use has risen from 7 per cent in 1978 to 33 per cent in
1993. Although levels of use only rose moderately over the last four
years, from 27 to 33 Per cent. in 1993 although level of use only rose
moderately over the last four years, from 27 to 33 per cent, there has
been a radical shift in the use of more effective modern contraceptive
methods, these accounted for about two thirds of all family planning in
1989 while at present they account for 84 per cent,
Mr. Chairman,
The use of modern contraceptives is strongly associated with
higher levels of education, 15 per cent of married women with no formal
education use a modern method, compared to 29 per cent of those with at
least some secondary education. These data provide important evidence
that Kenya's dual investment in girls' education and service delivery,
are having a strong positive influence on fertility decline. The change
in behaviour that underpins the above statistics arises from two major
thrusts in Kenya government social policy. On the one hand, the
improvement in the status of women through improved access to education
while, on the other, improvements in health. At the time of independence
in 1963, two-thirds of the less than 1 per cent had some secondary
education, By 1993 less than 5 per cent had no education and over 20 per
cent had some secondary education, This continuation of schooling has
reduced early marriages. Again, at the time of independence, 45 per cent
of girls in the 15 to 19 year olds bracket were married, Now less than
14 per cent are, A similar dramatic picture can be seen in the 20 to 24
year olds where 87 per cent has been reduced to 54 per cent over the
same time-frame. These changes in the age at marriage which are closely
associated with increase years at school, have given rise to spectacular
decreases in age specific fertility rates, In the 15 years since 1977,
the fertility rate of the 15 to 19 year olds has declined by almost 35
per cent while that for 20 to 24 year olds has fallen by about 25 per
cent.
Mr.Chairman,
Besides the impact of education which I have just described, the
improved survival rate of infants due to overall improvement in the
health services have contributed to major changes in fertility
behaviour. Of course, the survival rate is itself correlated to
education. At independence, more than 120 out of every 1000 babies
failed to see their first birthday and 200 did not reach their fifth
birthday. Today, 62 out of every 1000 babies fail to see their first
birthday while 95 do not reach their fifth birthday. The fact of infant
survival in the African culture where breast feeding is most common, has
clearly given rise to a longer spacing between pregnancies, while the
expectation of child survival has significantly affected desired family
size.
At the helm of the success of the Kena's family planning programme
is the political commitment of the Government, and the untiring crusade
which His Excellency the President, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi has
spearheaded, Over the years, President Moi has taken every opportunity
to impress upon Kenyans the need to have families they can adequately
provide for, lt is clear that the Kenyan people have responded to this
call ,Kenyans are also grateful for the support we have received from
the international community in the provision of family planning
services.
Mr. Chairman
Regarding Implementation of our population programmes, our
strategy has been decentralization through the utilization of local and
community organizational structures At the same time, the Government
has, over the years, made efforts to put in place the management, co-
ordination and organizational structures for population activities in
both the public and private sectors especially the NGOs Government
support for NGOs through institutional capacity building has enabled
them to perform their work better and more efficiently, But throughout
this support, there remains a serious concern that the gains of
political and economic independence, are not jeopardized by cultural
imports hostile to the values lie espoused in showing off colonial
imperialism,
Mr. Chairman,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like now to turn
to matters of population and development that are ahead of us. One of
the most important factors in the future economic and social development
of Africa and of the developing countries in general, is the rate of
population growth However, bringing down the rate of population growth
is not a sufficient condition, not indeed a necessary one, for
development to occur in the less developed countries, unless other
obstacles to development are simultaneously addressed the scope of
mobilization of population and development calls for a strengthened
partnership between men and women and should go beyond family planning.
In the past, women's role in development has been underplayed, leading
sometimes to denial of their basic rights, This Conference therefore
should not limit the development focus to only the reduction of the
growth of numbers in the developing countries, since this will cause
population programmes to fail to address the aspects of how to improve
the rights and status of women, which we have found to be the first step
towards a successful reduction in fertility in our country, women should
not be viewed as a target of development policy through which population
reduction by a quick and efficient "technological fix", could be
achieved.
Mr, Chairman,
The preparatory Conference documents lay considerable stress on
the impact of population growth on ecology as well as sustainable
development, Much of the world's literature in this matter highlights
the adverse implications of population growth on urbanization with
allied increases in pollution, industrialization associated with
development has also been identified as a cause of undermining the
environment, similarly, there is a popular view that population growth
in the rural areas has contributed to environmental degradation and
desertification, while it is true that rapid population growth has
sometimes affected environment and sustainable development negatively,
there are certain characteristics in Kenya which are noteworthy in these
respects, Our country is one of the least urbanized in the world, In
fact, our policy documents have sought to increase urbanisation, while
learning from experience of the rest of the world that Such urbanization
needs to be widely dispersed to be beneficial through economies of scale
and, trivially, it is obvious that cities are wealthier per square
kilometer than farms. Even the so called "bright lights syndrome" that
underlies much urban drift and quest for white collar education,
suggests that real earnings per urban worker are perceived to be higher.
Similarly, a close look at the population distribution in
developing countries and particularly in Kenya reveals that the rural
districts with the lightest population densities, happens to have higher
per capita incomes, This correlates closely with the distribution of
infrastructure and the access to markets. Even changes in technology in
these areas have been environmentally friendly and more sustainably
productive. Ironically, the sparsely populated areas which happens to be
the marginal lands are the ones experiencing desertification. These
areas definetely require a different type of development policy, perhaps
irrigation, than the densely populated ones. Internationally, observe
that migrations from the developing world, which are important factors
in population dynamics, are usually to cities where there is more
congestion and very high population densities. This tells us that people
are not looking for more space as a top priority, but rather, better
economic opportunities which could guarantee them a better standard of living.
Mr. Chairman,
Kenya recognizes the economic and environmental benefits that
accrue from long term low population growth rates. However, we feel
that such low population growth rates should be sustainable through
improved women's health and education which are important factors for
improving acceptance of contraceptive methods. In countries where
primary medical services are poor and illiteracy high, achievement of
low long term population growth rates would only be possible where
uninformed choices are made, death rates are high or down right coercive
practices employed. Kenya does not support coercive population policies
and believes in population programmes that respect peoples' rights, That
is why I would like to disagree with the simplistic argument that
fertility control would solve the "problems" of poverty and
environmental degradation caused by "population growth". The concern of
this view is only the achievement of population targets, and this has
the risk of application of physical, economic or intellectual coercion,
In fact, such coercive policies which are often very subtle would do
little to improve the quality of life for the poor and women in both
the developed and less developed countries.
Kenya's population programs will therefore continue to respect
individual rights, religious beliefs, and cultural values. The
Government will however continue to educate the population on the
advantages of small families, while at the same time, improving women's
status and rights including, access to and control of economic and
natural resources, health, and education The Government also recognizes
the importance of a stable family (in the traditional sense) in the
success of the development and any allied population programmes.
Kenya believes that inordinate liberalism is not in conformity
with our cultural and religious values. However, this should not be
construed to mean that we are against technology ana modernization. it
is only that we are convinced that a stable nation, and a stable world
has to be built by stable families, since these are the basic units in a
nation. We firmly believe that those morals, traditions cultural values
and religious beliefs that in the past have ensured stable Kenyan
families, should continue to be respected and observed.
We, therefore, do not subscribe to the idea that the youth should
be exposed to a contraceptive mentality, Kenya believes in the dignity
of human life Although we teach a number of topics related to the
biological processes in schools, these must always be complemented with
the utmost respect for the family's ability to inculcate its own
religious and cultural values, It is only in this way that we consider
that independent decisions by individuals can truly be an exercise of
their dignity,
Mr. Chairman,
There is much sense in a family having few children that it can
look after each one properly in terms of food, health, education and
potential employment, but I also realise that the world is full of
examples showing that the future is truly unpredictable. Scholars since
Malthus have tirelessly predicted multifarious disaster and mankind's
ingenuity has equally tirelessly circumvented it. In closing, let me
note that the world has experienced a lot of changes since the last
meeting in Mexico, The world has moved beyond the dualism where it was
divided into neat boundaries between East and West and other similar
divisions.
The multiple explanations of the relationships between
population,environment and development should not therefore divide us
into debates of North verses South, women verses men, traditional
versus modern and environmental protection verses economic growth, to
name only a few, Instead, we should work towards finding workable
solutions to the developmental problems that afflict the world to the
mutual benefit of mankind, For, after all, the care of the common good-
of all a nation's citizen is the true responsibility of each Government,
Kenya strongly supports the partnership, at an international level
between all those truly seeking for the betterment of mankind.
Mr. Chairman,
I look forward to constructive deliberations which will enable us
devise workable mechanisms that will make the world, in the 21st century
and beyond, a better place to live in.
Thank You.