The massive population growth, higher than economic growth, is prejudicial to the Nigerien population’s well-being.
Family planning in Niger
Modern contraception is still little used in Niger, particularly in rural areas.
The Public Health Ministry has adopted a long-term plan (2012-2020) to contribute to curbing population growth through family planning. The goal is to move from 11% to 50% prevalence of modern contraception through three strategic lines reinforcing family planning:
- increasing supply in health centers
- increasing demand through education and awareness
- promoting a suitable environment.
Its implementation requires the mobilization of significant resources. Family planning awareness is part of a broader project on maternal and child health.
This project is co-financed by the Britanny Region, CD 35, and the city of Cesson-Sévigné. SDE35 supports the electrification of health centers, while AELB and CEBR fund the sanitation component with the construction of latrines in integrated care centers and health centers.
Despite the coup d’état on July 26, 2023, and the suspension of all aid from the French State, local Breton authorities have chosen to support all ongoing actions for the 2023-2024 period.
The counsellors of Tarbiyya Tatali
A counselor was engaged in November 2015, out of AESCD’s funding. She is in charge of increasing demand through education and awareness. On the other hand, health centers are in charge of answering demand.
She first got in touch with the ‘Savings For Change’ groups groups which are still very active in Dankassari despite the Stromme Foundation’s decision to stop financial aid.
She visits all the villages in the Dankassari rural community for awareness reunions. She aims to identify and train correspondents in the villages.
The first goal is to combat early marriages (before 18 years) and first pregnancies occurring before 19. The second goal is to improve women’s and children’s well-being by spacing out births and using modern contraceptive methods. The third goal is to contribute to an evolution of mentalities, particularly among men. The fourth goal concerns population awareness, establishing the link between economic and human development in Niger, and mastering demography.
A second counselor was recruited in 2018 for the villages of Dogondoutchi, with financial outgoings being shared by AECIN and the Orsay Dogondoutchi Exchanges Association with a similar mission
Training, pagivolts, and video sketches
Trainings
Training of relay people is organized for the women and men identified by the two counselors. Initially lasting three days and devoted to modern methods of contraception, they were extended to four days to also address the issue of girls’ schooling. A three-day training reinforcement is also organized, to exchange feedback on their practice in the villages and to check that the previous knowledge has been assimilated.
In Dankassari, the training sessions were financed by the AESCD within the framework of the program "Progressing towards Sustainable Development Goals in the Villages of Dankassari" and the following programs in 2018-2020 and 2021-2023. This way 86 relay women and 24 relay men received initial training funded by tAESCD: 30 women in 2017, 30 women in 2018, 26 women and 24 men in 2020. Additional training was provided to 30 women in 2021, the training was delayed due to the ban on training sessions by the Nigerien government because of COVID. It finally took place from March 5 to 7, 2021, with the participation of the two family planning counselors. Moreovercomplementary training took place for 56 women and 24 men in 2022.
In Dogondouchi, 120 relay women received initial training funded by the Orsay Doutchi association: 60 in November 2019, 30 in 2020, and 30 in 2021.
In 2023, 30 relay men were trained in Dogondoutchi and the 60 relay women initially trained in 2019 underwent a refresher session.
The 2 animators from Dankassari and Dogondoutchi also participated in an update training, along with the 2 newly recruited animators in Dogonkiria and Matankari, thus creating a network.
Tools: illustrated charts and filmed sketches
At the request of those trained, an image box (a set of 27 illustrated charts) was created, along with four filmed sketches titled “Akwai Magana! Let’s talk about it!”.
Due to the success of these highly educational films, four new sketches covering additional themes were produced: “Akwai Magana! Let’s talk about it!” (Season 2).
First effects
Efforts to change mindsets are reflected in the statistics. According to the Niger Demographic and Health Survey 2017, the birth rate decreased from 7.6 children per woman in 2012 to 6.0 children per woman in 2017. The decline is more significant in the Dosso region, which includes Dankassari and Dogondoutchi, dropping from 7.5 to 5.7 children per woman.
From 2018 to 2020, Maimouna Kadi, counselor, met over 11000 persons, including about 35% men in the Dankassari rural community, in several dozen villages. She also took part in the registry awareness campaign early in January 2021, which led her to travel to remote areas where she can’t use a motorbike, such as Karki Malam. From 2021 to 2023, she visited 5 villages three times each month, meeting an average of 300 to 400 people per month, mostly women. The focus is on visiting remote and previously unvisited villages.
Working in contact with the head nurse of the Integrated Health Center (CSI) in the commune of Dogondoutchi, facilitator Rekia Toumane visited several villages in the Dogondoutchi department in 2018, seeing over 2,300 people in 8 months, an average of nearly 300 people per month, with about 40% men. In 2019, she visited 25 further Dogondoutchi villages i.e. 5 villages per month including 3 meetings per village (15 meetings per month), dealing with one or two topics per visit.
In 2020, Rekia Toumane continued her visits and met 3540 persons overall, namely 2260 women and 1280 men.
Between 2019 and 2023, she visited a total of 47 villages in Dogondoutchi at a rate of five villages per month, conducting three sessions per village (15 sessions per month) with one or two themes each time. This represents a total of 20,500 people, including 33% men.
The visits of both facilitators will continue in 2023-2024, thanks to the continued funding from local authorities in Brittany.
Extension to the Communes of Matankari and Dogonkiria
In February 2024, the team of animators was expanded with the arrival of two new animators for the communes of Dogonkiria and Matankari, thanks to funding from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), managed by RAIL (Réseau d’Appui aux Initiatives Locales). Regular monitoring missions for the four facilitators are conducted by health professionals and mission officers from RAEDD and RAIL. The animators report monthly, and it appears that each of them meets over three hundred people (two-thirds women and one-third men) in five different villages every month.
The activity is now managed by RAEDD and RAIL, with partners AECIN, AESCD, and the Orsay-Doutchi Exchange Association. A joint account is managed by RAIL and RAEDD, and a quarterly meetings via WhatsApp allow all partners to review progress and make decisions by mutual agreement.
In Dogondoutchi and Dankassari, animators supervise during village meetings activities carried out by relay persons (mostly women, but also men) previously identified by them and trained for this purpose. These relays use as a means of communication, tools such as “image boxes” (plasticized illustrated pagivolts) which they are permanently equipped with and continue to raise awareness at various village gatherings, including weddings, baptisms, water points, under shade trees, and women’s group meetings.
In Matankari and Dogonkiria, the animators ae working to identify relay persons who will be trained at the beginning of 2025 and also equipped with pagivolts.
Since the end of 2024, the four facilitators have also been equipped with digital tablets. This new tool is proving invaluable during the facilitators’ visits to the villages.
Thanks to funding from Région Bretagne in 2023-24 and Conseil Départemental Ille et Vilaine (CD 35) in 2023, AECIN and AESCD were able to pay the wages of the Dogondoutchi and Dankassari animators. Unfortunately, the hoped funding from the CD 35 was not obtained in 2024, as Niger was no longer eligible for their call for projects, and it was with lower than expected resources that the family planning action continued. It will come to an end at the end of 2024 for the monthly missions of the two animators in Dogondoutchi and Dankassari.
The mutualization of funds between AECIN, AESCD and the association d’Echanges Orsay-Doutchi, financed by AFD and the Conseil Départemental 91, has allowed us to carry out the program planned for 2024, in particularly the recycling training courses for the 60 Dogondoutchi relay persons, which took place in May 2024, and the training courses for two groups of 30 new relay persons from the villages of the Dogondoutchi and Dankassari communes, which have been carried out during the last trimester of 2024. In March 2025, two groups of 30 new relay women from villages in the communes of Dogoniria and Matankari were trained.
Project reduction due to lack of funding
At the beginning of 2025, the two facilitators of Dogondoutchi and Dankassari did not see their contracts renewed. However, support from Soroptimist will allow them to carry out some follow-up missions.
Priority is given to the two facilitators of Matankari and Dogonkiria who continue their activities who continued their work until June 2025.
The trained relay people form a network of over 320 women and me in villages in the communes of Dankassari, Dogondoutchi, Dogonkiria, and Matankari. They work continuously to raise awareness about modern contraception, the widespread availability of prenatal and postnatal care and assisted childbirth in health facilities, the fight against early marriage, and the enrollment and retention of children, especially girls, in school.
