Social conflict, civil society, and maternal mortality in African countries

This study looks at the association between social conflicts, civil society freedom, and democracy, and how social conflicts impact maternal mortality in African countries as a first step toward understanding how to use civil society to pressure Sub-Saharan African governments into improving maternal mortality ratios and other human development indicators. Pro-Government riots were negatively associated with civil society freedom. Organized Demonstrations and Organized Riots were positively associated with civil society freedom when North African countries were included in the data, but when they were excluded, only Organized Riots were associated with civil society freedoms. The period under study included the Arab Spring, which was characterized by high numbers of Organized Demonstrations in North African countries. I theorized that Organized Demonstrations occur less often in Sub-Saharan African countries due to lower levels of internet connectivity (used to organize) or because government forces use severe suppression, which escalates demonstrations into riots more in Sub-Saharan Africa. The fewer Pro-Government riots there are, the freer the civil society, and the more Organized Demonstrations and Organized Riots, the freer the civil society. This indicates that Pro-Government riots tend to be organized as part of the government repression of civil society. The analyses used democratization levels of countries as a control variable and found that as autocracy level increases, the level of civil society freedom decreases. Organized Demonstrations were the only form of social conflict associated with maternal mortality. It was a negative association, with rising maternal mortality associated with fewer Organized Demonstrations. The finding therefore suggests that democratic governance, with associated civil society freedom, that allows Organized Demonstrations provides the best scenario for health outcomes in African countries.