By Jody J Grizzle

I was unsurprised and very relieved at a post from ‘@stats_feed’ which shared that Jamaica had tied with Bosnia, Cyprus, Italy, Japan and Spain for having one of the lowest birth rates for 2024, at 1.3 per cent of the population.

I cannot state with certainty that this is a credible data source and so this perspective is one of social commentary on the hypothesis of what a decline in the birth rate means for Jamaica, and not the sharing of academic research.

The birth rate refers to the number of live births per woman in a given period. For Jamaica, this means that the birth rate of 1.3% is insufficient to replace the two persons who contributed to the creation of this child, and therefore at some point the number of persons in the population will decline, and if this trend is maintained, older persons will eventually outnumber younger persons in the society.

From a policy perspective, an aging population means a smaller workforce, lower productivity, tax revenues and economic growth. This is juxtaposed by increasing demand for general health care, nursing care, pensions and social protection; and this cross-pollination between the economic and social spheres on aging, and the examples given are not exhaustive. I cannot countenance Pope John Paul’s declaration in Italy, the bastion of Catholicism which has experienced record low birth rates that “the number of births is the first indicator of a people’s hope. Without children and young people, a country loses its desire for the future”, and a call for a “new social covenant to encourage couples to be open to having children”. 

It is not the child or children in and of themselves, it is about the inputs required to mould children into productive, positive and progressive adults capable of assuming leadership in all spheres of importance to a nation. What arguments could convince today’s Jamaican woman to just be fruitful and multiply? The common cry for women of childbearing age in Jamaican society is the absence of quality men. In a social commentary, Dr Michael Abrahams referenced the shortage of available eligible men and this, in my view, is one key reason why there is a decline in Jamaican birth rates.

Women have learned that the need for companionship, love and even sexual fulfilment is inadequate to compensate for single parenthood. They have seen their mothers, sisters and friends all swallow this bitter pill and determined it’s not for them. They do not wish to look on four hungry mouths to feed, school and rear without having a clue of where the money, support or energy would come from. At this point, “the lot” of children do not seem like any beacon of hope as per the Pope’s declaration but rather a pervasive cycle of relentless self-sacrifice, a daily grind, forever delayed and denied goals and gratification, the inability to advance through education, acquisition of new skills or promotion at work unless they leave their children behind. At no point do these women even see the fathers as sources of help because regrettably, parental involvement of males is so grossly disappointing that stories of positive fathering are surprising and rare. This is not male bashing, just a simple statement from the Jamaican social sphere. Further, these women have inevitably witnessed or been testimonies of the negative outcomes faced by children who are uncared for or left behind, and they despise becoming a part of the perpetuation of these maladies.

The decision to have children has pivoted to the severe deficiencies in the other key ingredient in child making—the lack of a quality man. Women are no longer looking for Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome, just someone who is “single, straight, intelligent, educated, [gainfully] employed, and mentally and emotionally stable”. A friend of mine once jokingly said she would “take a man if he could read, write and know the difference between is and are”. Truthfully, this is not funny at all but the educational statistics of the achievement of boys vis-a-vis girls in standardised tests serve as witness.

Women have also taken to delaying childbirth until they have achieved educational and career goals which afford them an improved quality of life and financial independence if they must be single parents. But stick a pin, it is not only men who have deficiencies. Some men are also choosing to delay parenthood until they are independent and can find a suitable woman as a life partner who would not use children as an income-generation activity through ‘jacketing’ or extortion. Men are both weary and wary of women who have borne their children and then demand one hundred per cent financial support in monthly remuneration. For these women, apparently, their job was to have a child and forever invoice the father for the services rendered.

Another point of grievance and discontent is the daily provision of childcare. This requires significant domestic responsibilities in the home which are largely carried out by women, and are regrettably unrecognised, unappreciated or valued. It is usually the women who must ensure that there is a caregiver in her absence, that meals healthy or otherwise are provided, that the place is clean, homework is done, parent meetings attended, and child well-being provisioned. A colleague of mine asked the question, what makes the world go round? The answer provokes contention between money and spermatozoa however, it cannot be contested that money answers all tangible needs for child-rearing, and children are expensive. The preferential needs of a parent for their children include access to a smartphone and either a tablet or laptop, participation in at least two extracurricular activities such as gymnastics/ballet, chess, swimming, football/netball/athletics and robotics.

Preparatory over primary schools with smaller class sizes and similar socio-economic backgrounds to enable like-minded friendships, hair care for girls, housekeeper or nanny, driver, lunch subsidy, clothes, health care, their own room and foreign or domestic summer experiences.  A conservative estimate per child for a Gen Z could be $70,000 per month, if you can’t afford them, don’t have them! So, within a social context, the low fertility rate is an indication that men and women for different reasons are taking greater control of their bodies and sexual reproductive health. Control is exercised through increased use of contraceptives, knowledge transfer and even voluntary abortions for which data is unavailable or unreliable given its illegality in Jamaica.

The introduction of paternity leave creates an enabling environment for shared childcare, however, more is needed to reverse the trend of low birth rates in Jamaica. Policy and programmatic provisions which incentivise having children and families would be required and necessitate expanding and financing the quantity and quality of the basket of goods which Generation Z finds necessary for them to have children, and to do so significantly more than the current inclusions under the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH). The government would need to contemplate additional policies which promote a more equitable division of labour in the home, or at the very least do not leave women disenfranchised by the decision to have children.

Significant steps to change the existing miseducation in the Jamaican social fabric, which frames male and female interactions and promotes greater parental responsibility on the part of men are critical. Yes, we need to target males because the levels at which they abscond their parental responsibilities are grossly disproportionate to that of mothers and is evidenced by the number of female-headed households. Targeted programmes and interventions to improve human capital development of men and boys through re-aligned teaching and learning strategies, skill acquisition, internships and education programmes and behaviour modification through mentorship, residential programmes and innovation are critical. Improving the fertility rate means that potential parents must see children as beacons of hope and not imprisoning them to a caliginous future. Finally, the Pope and his followership, assuming they are quality guys, should follow their advice to be fruitful and multiply instead of denying the sexual nature of mankind. In fact, that sect could become some of the most eligible bachelors around the globe.

Jody Grizzle has over twenty years of experience in managing projects for development and social change.

Jody J Grizzle
Project Coordinator
Digital Learning Innovation
The UWI Global Campus
Mona Site, Jamaica
[email protected]