Should we simply make more children?

Social policy is always challenging even in the best of times, but even more so when the very fabric of society is under threat as is the case with our country.

In the news item the slowdown in population was attributed to people having fewer and fewer children,  with the fertility rate having now declined to only three children per woman, from seven in 1981. What perturbed me about the discussion was that everybody, both the members of the public who were interviewed and the professional concentrated on the declining fertility rate and ignored the most critical factor in Botswana currently, which is mortality.