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The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa

The Unique Case of Ethiopia

  • Book
  • © 2011

Overview

Editors:
  1. Charles Teller

    1. Population Reference Bureau, Washington, USA

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  2. Assefa Hailemariam

    1. Inst. Population Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Transdisciplinary and contextual analysis of socio-economic development within context of vulnerability to poverty and food insecurity

  • Case study of socio-economic, cultural and agro-ecological diversity within the volatile

  • Horn of Africa Malthusian and Boserupian theories to help understand demographic constraints to development Africanized conceptual model of demographic responses and adaption to natural and human hazards and climate variability

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxx
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  2. Introduction: Context and Framework

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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  4. Demographic Transitions and Human Development

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17
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    2. The Fertility Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1990–2005: How Unique Is Ethiopia?

      • Tesfayi Gebreselassie
      Pages 19-44

    3. The Nature, Pace and Determinants of the Incipient Fertility Transition in Ethiopia, 1984–2007: Can the 4.0 TFR Target for 2015 be Met?

      • Charles Teller, Assefa Hailemariam, Tesfayi Gebreselassie
      Pages 45-68

    4. The Demographic Transition and Development Nexus in Ethiopia: Real Dividend or Burden?

      • Yordanos Seifu, Mehiret Habte, Solomon Alayu
      Pages 69-88

    5. Better-Educated Youth as a Vanguard of Social Change? Adolescent Transitions to Later Marriage and Lower Fertility in Southwest Ethiopia

      • Moshi Herman, Dennis Hogan, Tefera Belachew, Fasil Tessema, Abebe Gebremariam, David Lindstrom et al.
      Pages 89-101

  6. Population Distribution, Migration, Urbanization and Labor Force

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143
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    2. Migration and Urbanization in Ethiopia: Addressing the Spatial Imbalance

      • Assefa Hailemariam, Aynalem Adugna
      Pages 145-165

    3. Rural–Urban Linkages in Ethiopia: Insuring Rural Livelihoods and Development of Urban Centers

      • Aynalem Adugna, Assefa Hailemariam
      Pages 167-186

    4. The Importance of Permanent and Temporary Migration for Occupational Mobility in Urban Centers: Young Women are Doing Better than Young Men

      • Yanyi K. Djamba, Charles Teller
      Pages 187-211

  8. Development Policy and Program Evaluation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 283-283
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Keywords

About this book

"The heated Malthusian-Bosrupian debates still rage over consequences of high population growth, rapid urbanization, dense rural populations and young age structures in the face of drought, poverty, food insecurity, environmental degradation, climate change, instability and the global economic crisis. However, while facile generalizations about the lack of demographic change and lack of progress in meeting the MDGs in sub-Saharan Africa are commonplace, they are often misleading and belie the socio-cultural change that is occurring among a vanguard of more educated youth. Even within Ethiopia, the second largest country at the Crossroads of Africa and the Middle East, different narratives emerge from analysis of longitudinal, micro-level analysis as to how demographic change and responses are occurring, some more rapidly than others. The book compares Ethiopia with other Africa countries, and demonstrates the uniqueness of an African-type demographic transition: a combination of poverty-related negative factors (unemployment, disease, food insecurity) along with positive education, health and higher age-of-marriage trends that are pushing this ruggedly rural and land-locked population to accelerate the demographic transition and stay on track to meet most of the MDGs. This book takes great care with the challenges of inadequate data and weak analytical capacity to research this incipient transition, trying to unravel some of the complexities in this vulnerable Horn of Africa country: A slowly declining population growth rates with rapidly declining child mortality, very high chronic under-nutrition, already low urban fertility but still very high rural fertility; and high population-resource pressure along with rapidly growing small urban places”

Reviews

From the reviews:

“This book is the first in the field of demographic transition and development in Africa with particular reference to Ethiopia … . This is a useful book that presents a number of important ideas and results. … The book is more important and useful to policymakers not only in Ethiopia, but for other countries in the sub-Saharan African region that might have similar demographic and socio-economic development issues.” (Gebremariam Woldemicael, Canadian Studies in Population, Vol. 40 (1-2), 2013)

“This book captures and brilliantly describes the distinctiveness of Ethiopian population health and nutrition trends, and the factors that impinge upon them. The authors creatively used existing data blended with a rich understanding of the local context to tell a complex story in a fascinating and insightful way. It is a must read for scholars and students of African demography.”

Dr. Jacob Adetunji, Government Demographer

“This book is clearly a masterful comprehensive exposition of the dynamics of interrelationships between population change and development in the Horn of Africa…. Full of illustrative insights and erudite discourse on key issues in the field of population science as they affect Ethiopia. … A must read for academicians, researchers and scholars in population field. This book is an authority and a reference point on Ethiopian demography”.

Clifford Odimegwu, Ph.D., Director, Programme in Demography and Population Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

“These leading scholars have brought together a collection of data and analyses of demographic information for Ethiopia that is worthy of careful study far beyond the borders of the country.  This book will be of interest to those concerned about population trends and sustainability of the human experiment worldwide”.

William Ryerson, President of the Population Media Center

“This important book, the impressive result of a strong North-South partnership, asserts the uniqueness of Ethiopian demographics while also enriching our grasp of the traditional demographic transition theory”.

John F. May, Ph.D., Lead Population Specialist, The World Bank

“This work constitutes a timely and most relevant contribution to strengthening the knowledge base necessary for policy formulation and programme development in Ethiopia as well as other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Several of the findings and recommendations are valuable beyond the specific context of Ethiopia. Indeed, the diversity and deep contrasts in demographic, social, ecological and cultural contexts make Ethiopia’s case a particularly rich and interesting one. Demographic knowledge has much to contribute to policy formulation for sustainable development and this book is a good example of the relevance of such contributions”.

Dr. Rogelio Fernandez-Castilla, UNFPA/NY

Editors and Affiliations

  • Population Reference Bureau, Washington, USA

    Charles Teller

  • Inst. Population Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Assefa Hailemariam

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