The demographic transition in the Sahel region has been slower than that in the rest of the world. Although child mortality rates have declined in recent decades, they are still higher in West Africa than in other regions. Furthermore, the fertility decline has progressed very slowly, with some...

These two addresses to the National Leaders' Seminar on Population and Development in Nairobi and to the International Population Conference in Mexico City in 1984 concern the urgent and important problem of fast population growth. Rapid population growth slows development, with the poor being...