Linking Population, Fertility and Family Planning with Adaptation to Climate Change: Views from Ethiopia

This 40-page document details a study exploring how communities in Ethiopia react to and cope with climate variation, which groups are considered most vulnerable, what resources communities need to adapt to climate changes, and the role of family planning and reproductive health in increasing resilience to climate change impacts.

In recognition of the fact that the effects of climate change are being felt disproportionately in the world's economically poorest countries, among the groups of people least able to cope, and in places that face rapid population growth, Population Action International (PAI) and Miz-Hasab Research Center (MHRC), in collaboration with the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), undertook a study to investigate how people in one country hard hit by the effects of climate change relate their experiences with changes in climate to various factors affecting their ability to adapt. Using qualitative methods, the study was carried out in 2008-2009 in peri-urban and rural areas of two regions in Ethiopia: the Oromia region and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's (SNNP) region. In all, the study included 12 focus group discussions conducted separately with 48 men and 48 women, 24 in-depth interviews with community members and leaders, and 14 in-depth interviews with policymakers, government representatives, and other key leaders.

In brief, researchers found that, while awareness of family planning is high, 34% of currently married women want to postpone childbearing for 2 or more years or stop entirely, but they are not currently using contraception. In the SNNP region, a rural community member remarked that "...if a family has limited children, he will have enough land for his kids and hence we can protect the forests....In earlier years, we had a lot of fallow lands, but now, as a result of population growth, we don't have adequate fallow land. Therefore, limiting the number of children will help us to cope with the change in climate."

An Excerpt from the document follows:

"In designing global, national and local strategies to promote adaptation to climate changes, it is critical to hear the voices of those most affected by these changes, along with those of community leaders, policymakers, government representatives and other leaders who are entrusted with designing programs to strengthen adaptation. In this study, women and men from two areas of Ethiopia have spoken eloquently about the increasing challenges they face in adapting to climate change; they recounted how rising temperatures, more frequent draughts and, paradoxically, increased flooding, receding agricultural grazing land and diminishing forests are making it more difficult for their families and communities to cope. These reflections on increasing hardship are coming from people who are accustomed to enduring struggle to survive. From their own experiences, they link population pressure to the effects of climate change and report that families should consider having less children to avoid as much hardship in making a living and in utilizing natural resources for survival. They highlighted the particular vulnerabilities of women and children. They spoke of communities coming together to promote coping strategies and the need for government assistance in the face of increasing frequency of adverse events caused by the effects of climate change...

Based on these findings, this research leads to the following recommendations for the government of Ethiopia, donors, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and researchers:

1. Support integrated approaches to climate change adaptation that build on people's expressed needs, and strengthen community-based adaptation strategies to include expanding access to reproductive health and family planning services...
2. Give more high-level policy support to Ethiopia's reproductive health and family planning programs to reduce the high unmet need for contraception and to improve maternal and child health...
3. Researchers should include population growth, fertility and access to family planning and reproductive health services in future studies of impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change...
   

This study has paved the way in showing that many Ethiopians do think of family size when they conceptualize their ability and the ability of their communities to adapt to climate change. Future studies to assess resilience and adaptive capacity should include components on fertility, reproductive health and access to family planning services."