Kenya’s Contribution to 2050 World Population

The 21^st Century will go down the annals of history as the century in which the world experienced an explosion of its population. The increase in the world population from five to seven billion was achieved at a very short period of time prompting a cause for concern. It is claimed that it took about fifty-thousand years for the world population to get to its first billion. The explosive increase in population is set to continue in the course of this century. Fertility decline speed, especially in the third-world is the primary issue that is considered to influence the estimate of a 9.3 billion population by 2050.

Source: World Population data, 2015

The decline in the fertility rate in the developing countries, and especially those that are still experiencing a population explosion such as Kenya, is assumed to be the most profound shaper of world population in the 21^st Century. If the population will go beyond the 10 billion mark by 2050, it gives the implication that several other billions will be attained at the end of the century. This can only be avoided through the control of fertility, and especially in our country where the fertility rates are overwhelmingly high.

 The interventions aimed at ensuring that the world population does not exceed 9.3 billion should be initiated at the earliest time possible. As such, fertility interventions are urgently needed since the population explosion would mean a multiplication of nearly all social problems and policy challenges. These problems include climate change, intensified competition for the available resources and poverty rate increase.

To bring down the fertility rates in Kenya, the governments should come up with policies aimed at increasing the well-being of individuals so as to empower them to practice their reproductive rights. Through these initiatives, individuals will be able to expand their opportunities and choices. For instance, interventions aimed at increasing people’s access to contraception, reducing child mortality, and increasing the education levels of people often influence the decisions that parents make with regard to the number of children they plan to have. 

Poverty reduction strategies can also empower women and the poor so as to be able to exercise their reproductive rights and improve the chances that their children have in life. These interventions are meant to ensure that people in the developing world make the right decisions regarding their fertility.

Current concerns by the government and NGOs over fertility rates down is a clear indication that the reproductive health choices that people are making at this point will have direct implications on the world population by 2050. It is therefore clear that the estimation of the 9.3 billion people is on the low-end after the current interventions produce the anticipated results. The issue of fertility rate control prevails among all other issues that are deemed important in regulating the population of the world by 2050 and ensuring that the current social and economic problems are not carried into the future.