Peace Without Poison

for the first four years of his rule bringing the total fertility rate from 7.5 down to 6 children perwoman. During the last three years of his rule he abandoned the covert depopulation programand the total fertility rate rose from 6 to 6.8 children per woman.Cabral’s successor, President João Bernardo Vieira had no policy of population control duringhis first (1980-1984) and second term in office (1984-1994) and the total fertility rate stabilizedat 6.8 children per woman. During his third term in office, however, from 1994 to 1999, hereintroduced population control on the insistence of the UN, but allowed only the use of legaland voluntary methods of contraception, and by the end of his third term in office the totalfertility rate had declined again down to 6 children per woman.Viera’s successors have continued in his vein and have pursued a cautious policy of populationcontrol until recently when the UN has been given a green light to use sterilizing vaccines.With a contraceptive prevalence rate of just 14% and virtually no abortions whatever fertilitydecline Guinea-Bissau accomplishes it will be due to sterilizing vaccines and the malaria drugartemisinin.The country’s inaction on the fertility front has condemned the people to poverty.Guinea-Bissau is in stage two of the demographic transition.319 | P a g e