What problems are Niger facing?

Lesson Objectives
•Explain why Niger has not experienced a dramatic fall in death rate
•Summarise the problems of population growth in Niger
Falling death rates

• Over the past 100 years death rates have fallen in many countries

• During the 20th century an enormous improvement in public health has led to
an overall decrease in death rates

• Infant mortality and maternal mortality rates have dramatically decreased

 Why hasn’t Niger seen a drop in birth rates?
• Draw a spider diagram to show reasons why birth rates
are still high in Niger using this information
NIGER: POPULATION EXPLOSION THREATENS
DEVELOPMENT GAINS
If the people of Niger remain uninformed about family planning and keep reproducing at the
current rate, the country’s population will more than quadruple by 2050, according to
research by Niger’s national statistics agency. Niger’s population will make it impossible for
the government to provide adequate health, education, jobs and water - tasks that it is
already finding difficult, with a fraction of the population.
‘We surveyed the country and found that the average number of children per mother is 7.1.
However, we also asked them how many they would like to have - women said 9 and men
said 12, but some families said they would like 40 or 50 children,’ said Adamou Soumana.
For poor families children are a source of wealth. They work on the land, go into the towns
to earn money and look after their parents when they are old.
Just 5% of the people of Niger use family planning and contraception. ‘People aren’t
informed enough about the negative consequences of having so many children,’ Soumana
added.
 What can they do?
GOVERNMENT ACTION PLAN • What are the government
Niger’s government has put in place a
doing to try and manage
plan to slow down population growth.
The government wants the number population growth?
using family planning to increase from
5 to 20 by 2015. The plan also calls • Do you think this is the
for information campaigns to educate most effective way of
religious leaders and especially
women about the availability and
managing the problem?
importance of family planning. It Explain your answer.
proposes that the number of early
marriages be cut. Many girls in Niger
marry before the age of 15. Raising
the marriage age to 18 would take up
to four years off a woman’s
reproductive life.
Your Task

• To be successful at GCSE you need to have examples which you can use in
your work to support your answers

• I want you to create an informative poster about ‘Rapid Population Growth

in an LEDC’
Rapid Population
• Include:
Growth in an LEDC

• background information on Niger

• what is happening to Niger’s population

• what impacts is this having

• what could be the solutions

Homework

• Complete your case study poster

• Answer the following exam style question

For a named country, explain how a government can

manage a rapidly growing population.

• Due in Monday 30th September