Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue

From awareness to adoption: the effect of AIDS education and condom social marketing on condom use in Tanzania (1993-1996).

This paper uses retrospective event-history data covering a four-year period to examine the timing of exposure to HIV/AIDS education and social marketing condom promotion campaigns, relative to the timing of changes in sexual risk behaviour in Tanzania. Analysis of the event-history data shows that the process of exposure to AIDS education messages and exposure to brand advertising for Salama brand condoms was very different. While exposure to AIDS education was early and gradual, exposure to Salama brand condoms started later, but was much more rapid. After one year of advertising, over half of the target population had been reached by the Salama advertising campaign, mostly through newspapers, radio and television. During the study period, condom use increased from 15% at the beginning of 1993 to 42% at the end of 1996. Increases in condom use were driven both by men who became sexually active, and by men who were not yet protected, or not fully protected. The results further show that it is uncommon for men who adopted condom use to return to more risky behaviour, which suggests that behaviour change in the study population is permanent.

Family size and schooling in sub-Saharan African settings: A reexamination

Contrary to theory and evidence from many other regions, previous studies in sub-Saharan Africa have found surprisingly weak associations between family size and schooling. It is unclear, however, whether these weak results reflect (spurious) limitations in methodology or (real) differences in context. This study uses schooling histories from Cameroon to test four contending methodological and contextual explanations for these weak results: measurement bias, statistical estimation bias, family buffering, and socioeconomic context. We find the strongest support for the last explanation: the relationship between family size and schooling varies with spatial and historical context. This relationship has strengthened within the country over time, and this raises concern about the implications of current demographic transitions on inequality among children.

Pregnancy-Related Dropouts and Gender Inequality in Education: A Life-Table Approach and Application to Cameroon

In this study, I used a life-table approach to estimate how much hypothetical reductions in pregnancy-related dropouts would help close the gender gap in educational attainment. Using the schooling histories of 6,686 pupils, I partitioned Cameroon’s gender gap in education into “pregnancy-related” and “non-pregnancy-related” components and simulated the impact of reductions in pregnancy-related dropouts on this gap. The results suggest that such reductions would have substantial payoffs in this setting, but payoffs would be the greatest where societies also address gender inequities before puberty and outside the realm of pregnancy. Reductions in pregnancy-related dropouts complement but do not replace efforts to reduce gender discrimination in schooling. Recent data from Demographic and Health Surveys should make it possible to extend this analysis to other countries.

Till Marriage Do Us Part: Education and Remittances from Married Women in Africa

A commitment by the United Nations in 2000 to reduce the global gender gap in education has rekindled a debate over the reasons for the persistence of this inequality. One question at the heart of the debate is whether parents’ preferential investment in the schooling of their sons rather than their daughters, which is evident in many developing countries, is rooted in culture or in economic circumstance. Does this selective investment reflect a broader cultural system of patriarchy? Alternatively, should it be seen as a strategic response to lower economic returns to daughters’ schooling? A frequent argument in favor of the latter interpretation highlights the importance of remittances from children to parents. In areas where these remittances are a prime source of old-age security, parents worry about losing access to the fruits of their daughters’ education when they get married, especially in areas in sub-Saharan Africa in which patrilocality is disproportionately the residential arrangement. In such contexts, parents would favor boys in their educational investments. This remittance argument has been raised anecdotally in metaphors that liken educating a daughter to “watering a neighbor’s garden.” This sentiment has been summarized by academic researchers who note a “strong belief that once married, girls become part of another family and the parental investment is lost.” By these accounts, marriage is

Economic Downturns and Schooling Inequality, Cameroon, 1987-95

Policy makers often worry that economic crises aggravate schooling inequalities, but the longitudinal data to monitor these inequalities are typically lacking. This paper uses the schooling histories of 2,249 pupils to investigate how the economic downturn in Cameroon in the period 1987-95 affected the schooling inequalities associated with sex of pupil, residence, the familys socio-economic status, and family size. We first assess overall patterns and find these inequalities to depend on grade and other vulnerability factors. For instance, girls are disadvantaged in comparison with boys only in rural families and within primary and junior secondary school. We then examine historical changes in schooling inequalities, distinguishing between long-term trends and net changes during crisis years. We find that the inequalities associated with sex of pupil and family size have increased. Results underscore the importance of economic conditions in sustaining progress in closing gaps in education between the sexes. They also suggest that fertility and family size are of growing significance for schooling in African settings.

The role of fertility in achieving Africa's schooling MDGs: Early evidence for sub-Saharan Africa

In theory, declines in national fertility boost schooling by reducing age dependency, but questions remain about the size and catalysts of this dividend. We address these questions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by using a detailed framework and decomposition methods. Results about catalysts suggest that, beyond policy, dividends depend on characteristics of fertility transitions and changes in employment, economic performance, and public commitment to education. Results about the size of Africas schooling dividends are mixed. On one hand, the annual schooling resource per child grew on average by

Demographic Change and Rural-Urban Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Trends

73 between 1990 and 2005, with a third of this growth tied to trends in age dependency. Yet despite these nominal gains, Africa lost ground relative to the world partly because age dependency declined even more in other regions. Only after 2105, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline, will Africa begin to narrow its gap vis-à-vis the world average. Also, dividends are predicted to accrue earlier among countries already having higher enrollments, suggesting that transitions may initially raise schooling inequality across sub-Saharan countries.

Fertility Transitions and Schooling: From Micro- to Macro-Level Associations

Insofar as demographic and economic outcomes are interrelated, demographic trends can signal or portend change in rural-urban inequality. This paper examines trends in the demographic differentiation and demographic exchanges between rural and urban communities of Africa, as these countries advance in their fertility transitions. We find that rural and urban communities are becoming increasingly dissimilar in birth rates, age structure, and educational composition. Even as demographic exchange, in the form of child fosterage, may continue to buffer inequality, the observed patterns of demographic differentiation raise concern about growing rural-urban inequality, especially at a time of selective globalization.

Growing up global and equal? Inequality trends among world children, 1980–2005

Research on the schooling implications of fertility transitions often faces an aggregation problem: despite policy interest in macro-level outcomes, empirical studies usually focus on the micro-level effects of sibsize on schooling. This article proposes an aggregation framework for moving from micro- to macro-level associations between fertility and schooling. The proposed framework is an improvement over previous aggregation methods in that it considers concurrent changes in the effects of sibsize, socioeconomic context, and family structure. The framework is illustrated with data from six sub-Saharan countries. Possible extensions are discussed.

Fertility Transitions and Schooling Dividends in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Experience of Vanguard Countries

Children are increasingly expected to grow up global yet their worldwide inequality is understudied; while countries’ incomes may be converging, it is unclear whether childrens outcomes also do. This paper investigates the recent trends in global inequality among children. Findings show a fall in resource inequality, driven by Asias exponential economic growth and Africas slowing fertility trends. Paradoxically, this resource convergence occurred alongside divergence in infant mortality. Such findings have three implications. First, they caution against assuming automatic convergence in childrens well-being in response to income convergence between nations. Second, they illustrate how national differences in age dependency account for global inequality among children. Third and more broadly, they stress the importance of demographic and policy – in addition to economic – convergence in bridging substantive inequality among the world‘s children.