Family planning as a solution for a sustainable future in Sub-Saharan Africa : The efforts of the global community: state and non-state actors

In 2050, 9.7 billion is expected to live on Earth. Entering a new decade in 2020, the global agenda concerns sustainable development and how humans can live on Earth sustainable while continuing to develop. A solution to reach a sustainable future is through family planning. Family planning is for women to freely decide whether, when and how many children they have. It is achieved through contraceptive methods and treatment of infertility. There is an unmet need for family planning, as there are 214 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy but are not using any modern contraception method. This thesis is a comparative case study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United Republic of Tanzania. These countries have both succeeded and failed in their efforts for family planning. This research concern not only state actors but also non-state actors and include a global initiative comprised of both - Family Planning 2020 - as well as three selected non-state actors. The opportunity model serves as the analytical framework for this research. The four identified barriers to family planning - unjustified medical rules, misinformation and fear, abortion and culture - are used to analyse why the actors have succeeded and failed. It is found that the global community is engaged in lowering population growth. However, their efforts might not be enough and their goals are not reached