Africities Summit highlights limited access to family planning

Morocco traditional dancers entertain guests on the third day of the 9th Aficities Conference at the Jomo Kenyatta International Stadium in Mamboleo, Kisumu County. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Rapid urban population growth in Africa is primarily due to more births than deaths in cities or natural increase and not rural to urban migration, the 9th Africities Summit in Kisumu heard. The forum was told that around 20 million women in African cities want to use family planning, but cannot access reproductive health services. Such mounting urbanisation, the participants noted, presents challenges for planning and providing physical infrastructure and social services.

During a session called ‘Family planning is critical to urban development: What you need to know and what you can do,’ representatives from 54 African countries heard that city populations tend to be younger than in rural areas, and that millions of urban women want to space or limit their births but are unable to do so.