Fertility intentions and economic hardship in sub-Saharan African cities. Questions about the renunciation of fertility desires among men and women in Kinshasa, Accra and Dakar.

Felly Kinziunga, Université de Kinshasa

When we talk about men and their fertility intentions in the study of sub-Saharan fertility, it's usually to explain women's fertility. Obsessed by the region's high fertility levels, researchers focus mainly on the reasons why people procreate more children than they desire, but rarely on the opposite. This article investigates the correspondence between the ideal number of children men desire and their own fertility in three major African megacities, by asking whether, at the end of their reproductive lives, townspeople reach the ideal number of children they desire, or do they renounce it? The study shows that in urban areas, a relatively large proportion of people give up their desire for fertility, and it's more women than men who give it up before the end of their reproductive lives.