Can Family Planning Programs Help Close Gender Gaps in Education? Theory, Simulation, and Application to African Countries

Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, Cornell University

Problem Statement: Cogent arguments suggest that family planning programs (FPPs) can reduce gender inequality in educational attainment and thereby facilitate socioeconomic development in poor countries. Thus far, however, these arguments have only received partial empirical scrutiny. In theory, FPPs can narrow gender gaps in schooling by reducing family size or, more directly, by averting pregnancy-related dropouts. While empirical studies have examined the family-size nexus, researchers have insufficiently explored the more direct link through pregnancy-related dropouts. Studies showing that many girls -and few boys- drop out of school because of unplanned pregnancies warrant the qualitative conclusion that FPPs should narrow the education gap between boys and girls. Yet the ultimate policy question is a quantitative one. Do policies to reduce pregnancy-related dropouts (PRDs) have an impact that is substantial enough to warrant their advocacy as a means to foster gender equality in education? Objectives and significance: This paper clarifies and attempts to quantify the potential impact of FPPs on the gender gap through reduced pregnancies among schoolgirls. Its contributions are both methodological and substantive. Methodologically, the paper applies life table analysis to the policy evaluation of family planning programs. Substantively, the paper informs two important policy debates in developing countries. One is a debate on strategies to reduce gender educational inequalities in a context of severe budget constraints. The other is a debate on the continued relevance of FPPs in developing countries. Both debates hinge on whether FPPs have demonstrable positive externalities on the economy and society in developing countries. The specific externality examined here is in the area of gender inequality in educational attainment. Methods To achieve its objectives, the paper takes advantage of a unique survey that was specifically designed to investigate the relationships between fertility and schooling events. Analyses proceed in three steps. First, I develop the mathematical relationship between the incidence of PRDs and gender gaps. Second, using schooling history data and schooling life-tables, I simulate the effects of reductions in PRDs on the magnitude of the gender gap in Central Cameroon. Finally, I expand simulation to other African countries to assess contextual variability and determine which countries stand to benefit most from investments in family planning. Preliminary findings Preliminary analyses show that FPPs are neither necessary nor sufficient to close gender gaps in education, but that they become an important limiting factor as countries gradually achieve parity in primary schooling and as parental discrimination subsides. In the study setting, a 50 percent reduction in rates of school pregnancies would make it possible to achieve gender parity in secondary school completion, in a context where the female-to-male ratio among secondary school graduates was previously 0.83. Improvements would have been much smaller with lower rates of primary completion or with greater parental discrimination. Simulations for other African countries show greater impact in Western African nations where parental discrimination and teen fertility are highest.