Since my graduate student days at the University of California Berkeley in 1969-71, I have argued endlessly without much success that the easiest and least controversial way to undertake family planning is through the education of girls that empowers women to manage their reproductive behavior without pressure from anybody including spouses. But many individuals and institutions continue to prefer contraception including pills and surgery (sterilization and vasectomy).
The Uganda Parliament recently passed legislation forcing Uganda couples to have no more than three children. This is a violation of human rights for couples to have the number of children they want. That education and empowerment of women hastens reduction of family size can be seen from Iran following the end of war with Iraq.
In Iran women education was a key factor in family planning. “[F]emale education. Not just primary and secondary, but university. In 1975, barely a third of Iranian women could read. In 2012, more than 60 percent of Iranian university students were female. The literacy for females twenty-six and under was 96 percent. Giving women control over their wombs and their education made it increasingly hard to deny them the workplace. By 2012, one-third of government employees in Iran were women”. The acceptance rate of family planning was so high that within two years of implementation, “Iran’s demographers were disbelieving their own numbers”(Alan Weisman 2013).
This is what needs to be done in Uganda. Give girls education that keeps them at school including by providing school lunch. With quality education women will be empowered and determine their reproductive behavior in favor of small family size.