Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we describe how the "population problem" was constructed and how the FP discourse - responding to global ecopolitical dynamics - is displayed and transformed from the national level of policies and programme to the local level of rural households.

Paper long abstract:

Family planning (FP) was introduced in Burundi as a national programme in 1983 to control population growth, described as a barrier to economic growth and a cause of socio-political instability. Today, using the same rationale and supported by international donors, the government pursues the same objective of population control - promoting uptake of modern contraception and fertility reduction - setting it legitimacy on land pressure and conflict, distant from the reproductive health and rights rhetoric. In this paper, we describe how the "population problem" was constructed and how the FP discourse - responding to global ecopolitical dynamics - is displayed and transformed from the national level of policies and programmes to the local level of rural households. Using qualitative data collected in rural Burundi, we analyse how individuals and couples relate to the hegemonic discourse, sometimes adhering and adopting the technical solution - modern contraception -, sometimes resisting it and adopting the alternative solution promoted by the Catholic Church - natural methods. We further emphasize how reproductive preferences and practices are influenced by other factors contingent on the current changing social order, for instance gender and generational power dynamics. Finally, we discuss how the government promotes modern contraception as a (a-political) technical solution to the identified population problem and benefits from its instrument-effects. The discourse sets the responsibility for socioeconomic uncertainty, political instability and environmental concerns on individuals and couples by calling for responsible and disciplined reproductive practices, rather than on the duties of political elites to provide for stability, opportunities and redistribution.