Fifty Years of Family Planning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Dogged Pursuit of Progress

• Main Author: Bertrand, Jane T
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2024; Taylor & Francis
• Edition: 1
• Series: Routledge Studies on Gender and Sexuality in Africa
• Subjects: African Studies; Anthropology; Congo; Cultural & Ethnic Studies; DRC; Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning; Family and health; Family planning; Gender studies, gender groups; Geography; Gynaecology and obstetrics; Health, Relationships and Personal development; History; History and Archaeology; Interdisciplinary studies; IPPF; JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls; JBSF2 Gender studies: men and boys; Marriage & Family; Medical specialties, branches of medicine; Medicine and Nursing; Medicine: general issues; Mobutu Sese Seko; Personal and public health / health education; Philosophy; Philosophy and Religion; Politics and government; Popular medicine and health; Public health and preventive medicine; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Regional / International studies; Regional geography; Social and cultural anthropology; Social and ethical issues; Social and political philosophy; Social groups, communities and identities; Social Science; Social services and welfare, criminology; Social welfare and social services; Social work; Society and culture: general; Society and Social Sciences; Sociology; Sociology and anthropology; Sociology: family and relationships; The 1970s: President Mobutu Authorizes Naissances Désirables; The 1980s: Zaïre Experiences the First Golden Decade for Family Planning; The 1990s: Development Work Paralyzed by Pillages and War; The 2000s: Family Planning – Like the Country – Inches Back to Normalcy; The Belgian Congo (1908–60); The Congo Free State (1885–1908); The First Decade Post-Independence (1960–69); Topics in philosophy; USAID; Women's Studies; Women’s health; Zaire; Family planning; Women's Health; Reproductive Health; Sexual Health; USAID; International Conference on Family Planning; King Leopold II; Congo; Gender Equality; DRC; Zaire; Mobutu Sese Seko; Congo Free State; IPPF
• DOI: 10.4324/9781032718897
• ISBN: 9781032718873; 9781032718903; 1032718900; 1032718870; 104004848X; 1032718897; 9781032718897; 9781040048481

This book chronicles five decades of struggle to introduce family planning into one of the largest, most complex countries in sub-Saharan Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Interweaving details of major political, social, and economic events into the history of family planning in DRC (formerly Zaïre), the book analyses the achievements and setbacks of five decades of programmatic work. President Mobutu’s 1972 discourse on Naissances Désirables (desirable births) opened the door to organized family planning programs, which gained considerable momentum in the 1980s despite societal norms favoring large families. Two pillages and armed conflict paralyzed development work during the decade of the 1990s, and family planning was one of multiple public health programs that struggled to regain lost ground in the 2000s. With new donor funding and implementing agencies, the 2010s witnessed rapid programmatic expansion and improved strategies. By 2018, family planning was operating as a well-oiled machine. But progress is fragile. The book ends by tracing the deleterious effects of the colonial period to contemporary programming and individual contraceptive use. It asks hard questions about donor financing. And it details the six conditions needed to accelerate family planning progress in the DRC, in pursuit of providing millions of Congolese women and men with the means of controlling their own fertility. The book will be of interest to development and public health researchers and practitioners, as well as to historians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.