Regional analysis of community context of African fertility change

Anthropological explanations of demographic outcomes have emphasized the need to understand how community structures contribute to those outcomes. Studies on fertility dynamics in Africa have focused on micro-level factors at the expense of the community context.
Using the most recent Demographic and Health survey data from Nigeria [West Africa], Kenya [East Africa], Egypt [North Africa], Cameroun [Central Africa] and Zimbabwe [Southern Africa]and multilevel modelling technique, our study demonstrate that there is significant community effects on African fertility patterns, even after controlling for a number of individual factors such as age, education, religion and ethnicity.The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings to understanding emerging sub-saharan African fertility patterns.