ATTITUDES OF MEN TOWARDS FAMILY-PLANNING IN MBEYA REGION, TANZANIA - A RURAL-URBAN COMPARISON OF QUALITATIVE DATA

Family planning programmes in Tanzania date back to the 1950s. By the early 1990s, however, only 5-10%, of women of childbearing age used co ntraceptives in the country. Low contraceptive prevalence in Tanzania is reportedly attributable to men's opposition to family planning. Thi s paper employs focus groups to explore the role of Tanzanian men ill family planning. More specifically, it presents a rural-urban comparis on of the attitudes of men in Mbeya region, Tanzania, to family size : ?preference, sex composition, partners' communication on family planni ng matters and contraceptive behaviour. Findings indicate that men exp ress positive attitudes towards fertility-regulating methods. There is , moreover, little rural-urban variation in male attitudes towards fam ily planning in the study area. Possible reasons for this normative co nvergence (including structural similarities and rural-urban migration between the two communities) are discussed.