Unmet Need in Mozambique and Brazil: The Bounds of Fertility Transition and Challenges for Family Planning

Andre J. Caetano, Federal University of Minas Gerais
Carlos Arnaldo, Australian National University

Mozambique and Brazil are Portuguese-speaking countries with large territories and substantial regional, social and ethnic diversity. Brazilian TFR was 2.5 in 1996 (77% of married women were using contraception, 40% sterilized). Mozambique's TFR was 5.6 in 1997 (5.6% were practicing contraception as opposed to 17.8% of sexually active unmarried women). Brazil never had official family planning programs and was considered pronatalist. Mozambique has one since 1980, but the colonial government was considered pronatalist. We estimate the unmet need for women and men considering type of methods, unmarried individuals, sexual activity, fertility preferences, lack of knowledge/access to services and social/health hindrances. Considering sterilization prevalence, unmet need in Brazil may be higher than reported (7.3%). In Mozambique, social/health issues are more relevant and it may be lower than reported (22.5%). We have looked at two different situations of fertility transition of societies with socio-demographic similarities.