This seminar in Mexico gathered together delegates from research centers in Africa, Asia, America, Eastern and Western Europe, chosen on the basis of their replies to the CICRED survey sent out to all its members on their research projects in this field. A list was drawn up of 121 projects in 58 centers which dealt with these topics and these were used to establish the seminar agenda. Moreover, some Mexican agencies were also invited to send delegates: IISUNAM, El Colegio de Mexico, FLACSO, CONAPO, CRIM, SOMEDE, PROGRESA, etc., who took up the baton by actively cooperating in the three-day long seminar.

The proceedings were launched with a talk by CONAPO's Secretary General, Rodolfo TUIRAN, who spoke about the links between poverty, fertility and family life cycles in Mexico. He emphasized the significance of the role of family processes and changes between generations in fertility trends, as well as the passage from poverty status to non-poverty status. Social imbalances uphold considerable fertility differentials in spite of a general trend towards decline, which is undeniably related to differences in access to health services depending on social class. Mexico's population program must take these social imbalances into account in order to limit the consequences.

The first session covered the theoretical and methodological aspects. Dominique TABUTIN and Bruno SCHOUMAKER used a large number of cases from throughout the world to review the associations between poverty and fertility which give paradoxical results, closely dependent on indicators of poverty measurement. Efforts must be made to improve the tools used in analyzing the relationships between fertility and poverty. Susana LERNER and André QUESNEL emphasized the role of reproductive paths in the changes observed in the fertility levels of the lowest of the social classes. Pregnancy has become a medical event throughout Mexico, which implies that the various analytical levels: social, family and institutional, must be taken into account.

The second session dealt with family formation within the context of poverty. In the developed countries, the significant levels of teenage pregnancy offer the most visible sign, often related to the absence of any other alternatives for young girls who are victims of social exclusion, scanty education, unemployment or precarious living conditions. Access to health services gives rise to the issue of self-esteem, life projects and social and personal opportunities. In the transition economies of Eastern Europe (3^rd session), the significant deterioration of living standards has led families to limit their size, to use abortion and to be pessimistic about the future (Lithuania, Slovakia). In the same way, in the poor areas of Buenos Aires (4^th session), the situation is similar and results in a fertility decline amongst young women, while difficulties in gaining access to family planning, restrictions on abortion and difficulties in accessing health services lead to contraceptive methods being of little or no use. In spite of these problems, young girls will still have less children than their mothers did.

On the other hand, in a poor urban context in Senegal, the family planning practices and aspirations of males are restricted by those social and cultural determinants which put high fertility at a premium. Changes could be made possible through an increased offer of contraceptive methods (the action of some NGOs), but remain limited. Other cases, but in rural areas this time (Nepal, Côte d'Ivoire) also demonstrate very few changes in fertility within a crisis context or economic and social precarity, where increased poverty runs parallel to deterioration in the health services offered to the population, including family planning (5^th session), while conditions of access to land and environmental degradation would make a fertility decline a pre-requisite for putting a halt to population growth. In Côte d'Ivoire, young people are remaining single for longer periods due to the lack of work and the financial means which allow them to marry, but the supply of family planning services remains very poor and there are very few families who actually use any contraceptive methods.

In other cases, such as Mexico, Brazil and in two parts of India, the situation is totally different. Family planning supplies are exceptionally good, fertility is declining rapidly and sterilization is becoming more popular, particularly in Brazil, amongst the poorer population strata. The abundance of contraceptive methods available and program quality are directly related to this accelerated fertility decline in all social classes, including the poorest.

Finally, the general report and the final discussions showed that the concept of poverty is multi-dimensional, that the relationships between poverty, fertility and family planning are complex and diverse, depending on the economic, social or cultural context. A study of this topic highlights numerous methodological issues. On the other hand, it was clearly demonstrated that the poor sections of society are undergoing rapid transformation, that fertility and family planning are undergoing as many changes as in other social categories, that taking the education determinant into consideration is essential, as well as gender relationships. The same level of attention must also be given to the desire for children - which can decline when the value of children changes for family survival - as to the supply of family planning services, which can be a part of quality program that take into account the requirements of both families and individuals.

Fertility is a process within which poverty is a determinant, like any other. It is important to understand the dynamics of the processes which link fertility and poverty.

Several of the main topics on the agenda of this seminar threw some light on the issue:

• The role of institutional structures and access to these structures. For example, abortion reveals that there is a problem with access to family planning services and provides an indicator of unanswered demand in this sphere.
• Fertility and production structures. It has been observed how populations get round any crisis effects and how they adapt their reproductive behavior to a context of economic degeneration.
• The effects of poverty on the process of couple formation, family building or on young people leaving home.
• It would appear that the demographic transition has commenced among large numbers of the least wealthy. So, there definitely exists, at least in some areas, a "poverty malthusianism".
• The supply of family planning care and services is very important if the population's needs are to be covered, once it is known what these are.

Proceedings of the seminar

Editor on behalf of CICRED: Eric VILQUIN

Twelve papers have been selected for publication. They are available in PDF format (*.pdf). You can read them by using "Adobe Acrobat Reader". If you have not this one, click here to download it freely.

• Maria Eugenia Cosio-Zavala, Introduction (in English)

• Rodolfo Tuirán, Demografic transition, life course and poverty in Mexico (in English)
  Transición demográfica, curso de vida y pobreza en México (in Spanish)

• Bruno Schoumaker, Dominique Tabutin, Relations entre pauvreté et fécondité dans les pays du Sud. Etat des connaissances, méthodologie et illustrations (in French)

• Susana Lerner, André Quesnel, Contextes, institutions et acteurs. Pour une approche multiple des relations entre conditions de vie et comportements reproductifs (in French)

• Peter Selman, Teenage pregnancy, poverty and the welfare debate in Europe and the United States (in English)

• Fatima Juarez, Adolescent reproductive health in Latin America among low-income groups(in English)

• Vlada Stankuniene, Family well-being and fertility in transition to market economy: case of Lithuania (in English)

• Elsa López, Fewer children but earlier. The relationship between reproduction and poverty in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires (in English)
  Tener menos hijos pero rápido. Conexiones entre reproducción y pobreza en el Conurbano de Buenos Aires (in Spanish)

• Mbaye Diouf Ndiaye, Pauvreté, attitudes et pratiques des hommes en matière de Planification Familiale: le cas du quartier de Randouléne Nord (Thies/Sénégal) (in French)

• Agnès Adjamagbo, Crise et changements de comportement de fécondité et de planification familiale en milieu rural ivoirien (in French)

• José Gómez de León, Daniel Hernández, Poverty and contraceptive use in rural Mexico (in English)
  Pobreza y uso de métodos anticonceptivos en el México rural (in Spanish)

• Ignez Helena Oliva Perpetuo, Simone Wajnman, Socioeconomic correlates of female sterilization in Brazil (in English)

• Devendra Kothari, S Krishnaswamy, Poverty, family planning and fertility vis-à-vis management of family planning services in India. A case study (in English)

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