Abstract

PIP: 800 government-employed family planning community-based distributors distributed the pill throughout Zimbabwe's rural areas. The door-to-door service is one of the main factors that make Zimbabwe's family planning program successful. Zimbabwe boasts a contraceptive prevalence rate of 43% of adult women, considerably higher than Africa's average of 14%. This has caused Zimbabwe's total fertility rate to decline from 6.7 at Zimbabwe's independence (1980) to 5.3 in 1994. The total fertility rate for sub-Saharan Africa is 6.5. At independence, Zimbabwe's annual population growth rate was more than 3% and now it is down to 2.3%. Through the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, the government pays the salaries of the roving rural distributors. It is estimated that the government bears more than half the cost of the family planning council's budget of $2.5 million. During the war to end white minority rule in the 1970s, President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union was adamantly opposed to the population control efforts. However, in 1985, the shift toward encouraging smaller families was endorsed at the national convention of Mugabe's party. In 1981, about 14% of women were using modern contraceptive methods. By 1988, up to 36%, and a new survey shows that 45% are currently using contraceptives. The family planning council has also launched a Male Motivation Campaign enlisting endorsements from Zimbabwe's popular national soccer team. Zimbabwe has seen a dramatic increase in condom use as a protective measure against AIDS. Currently more than 800,000 Zimbabweans are HIV positive. There are some opponents to Zimbabwe's encouragement of family planning, chiefly the Roman Catholic Church, which claims about 1 million adherents in Zimbabwe. A full range of birth control methods is offered by the family planning council, including diaphragms, IUDs, injectables, implants, and surgical tubal ligations. The pill is used by more than 70% of Zimbabwean women overall and about 85% of rural women who use birth control.