Less Birth Control = More Babies + More Families In Poverty

So don't take my word on it. The Washington Post reports that in the Phillipines, high birthrates (and the lack of access to contraception that causes them) are keeping many families in poverty. Low-income Filipino families have extremely limited access to birth control. Federal contraceptive distribution programs have been defunded, and donated contraceptives will no longer be distributed in the government-run clinics that serve poor families. Shocker: family size among the poor is growing, and so is the number of Filipino families in poverty.

In recent weeks, public alarm in the Philippines over the soaring price of rice has focused attention on the fast-growing population and its dependence on rice imports.

Despite steadily increasing rice harvests, farmers here have been unable to keep pace with domestic demand. Economists here have calculated, though, that the Philippines would not need imported rice if it had managed to control population growth -- like its neighbor Thailand.

In 1970, the population of each country was about 36 million people and growing at about 3 percent a year. But with an aggressive family planning program that provides the poor with free contraceptives, Thailand has since reduced its population growth rate to 0.9 percent. In the Philippines, the rate has declined sluggishly to about 2.1 percent.

There are now about 26 million more people in the Philippines than in Thailand.

"It's a no-brainer," said Ernesto M. Pernia, professor of economics at the University of the Philippines.

No kidding, no brainer.

Political Violence And My Microloan

In November 2006, I made a $25 loan through Kiva.org to a Kenyan woman who took out a $1,700 loan to transition from maize farming to dairy farming by purchasing two diary cows. This is one of several loans I've made through Kiva. I don't make any money in interest, and I don't loan huge amounts of money, but I intend to keeping the money I currently have loaned through Kiva circulating to other Kiva clients because microlending is such a powerful tool for improving people's lives. The impact on the lives of women is especially remarkable. Microlending organizations have documented that microfinance extended to women is more likely to benefit family nutrition and children's education than loans made to men, and that loans to women are more likely to be repaid, allowing for the money to be lended to another client and further widening the circle. Many of the women whose loans I have funded through Kiva have been restuaranteurs or retail entrepreneurs. The loan to this Kenyan woman was my first agricultural loan, and as a fan of programs like Heifer International, I was especially interested in watching this woman's progress.

I get periodic e-mail updates about my various loans from Kiva and their partner organizations, the local groups responsible for administering Kiva's loans. Today I received an update from the Ebony Foundation, who administer this particular loan, describing the impact of the recent political violence on the Kenyan entrepreneurs repaying Kiva loans, and I wanted to share some of it with you:

The impact of the riots is most felt in the micro and small business
sector. Over 1 million small businesses were looted and or burnt down destroying the only source of income to millions of Kenyans. Most of the fighting and destruction occurred in slum areas in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Kericho in Rift Valley. These regions are home to over 70% of Ebony Foundation’s clients and as you can imagine almost all of our clients in these regions have been affected by the riots. Only one region- (Mount Kenya) which is home to about 20% of EbF’s clients was spared the violence. The economy in this safe region is now getting stretched as the residents have to now house the displaced population.


We have recently completed auditing the riot’s impact on our clients and as of yesterday about 4,900 of our clients had been badly affected by the riots:

-- About 1,532 of our clients were displaced and both their homes and business premises burnt down. This population is currently housed in church compounds and police stations.

-- Another 2,479 clients had their business premises burnt down or looted leaving them with no source of income at all.

-- 833 clients had their homes looted or burnt down and about 56 clients are missing and feared dead or critically injured.

We arrived at these figures through a survey being administered at holding grounds, police stations, and through reliable reports from groups and community leaders.

Of course I've heard news coverage here in the states about the political violence in Kenya, and clucked and fretted about how it sounded terrible and very sad. But receiving this email made it seem more immediate to me, and more personal. This is a set of impacts I had not thought about in much detail before, but it seems obvious to me now that political violence would have wide-ranging and potentially long lasting effects on the economic lives of the victims. I don't know yet whether "my" farmer was among those affected. The Ebony Fondation update talks only of loan clients in the aggregate. I hope for the best for all of them.