Country Comments

Senegal is a developing country. Almost half the country is classified as semi-arid. Much of the land is threatened with desertification because of overgrazing and soil erosion from overcultivation, and its forests and fisheries are overexploited.

Its citizens live a generally subsistence life, yet due to unsustainable population growth, its people now consume more natural resources than can be regenerated naturally.

The fertility rate has averaged 5 children per woman the past decade although that rate has been declining more recently. Pressure from husbands was cited as a primary influence for having more children.

The Senegalese government has taken a multifaceted approach aimed at stimulating the demand for family planning and to improve the supply and availability of contraception. This included the launch of information campaigns about the effects of frequent pregnancies on health, mass media campaigns that discussed and debated family planning, and decentralized supply chains reducing the incidence of shortages in contraceptive supplies (1)

(1)https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/files/documents/2020/Sep/unpd_2020_worldfamilyplanning_highlights.pdf