Demographic Dividend: Time for Africa to Cash in

By Mabingue Ngom

Africa may be known for different things including weak regional integration and relatively low levels of overall development.

But the continent also boasts some of the biggest sources and reserves of natural and human resources in the world, notably its youth population size, which has the potential to lift it out of the doldrums of poverty, inequality and economic backwardness.

Although minerals, solid, liquid and gaseous, are daily being extracted in Africa, one of the most important resources still available all over the continent is the huge size of the increasing youth population.

The world’s population may not be growing as fast as it once did, but by 2050, it’s expected to reach 9.7 billion, up from 7.3 billion in 2015. By mid-century, the world’s fastest-growing region, Africa, is projected to see its population more than double, while the slowest-growing region, Europe, is expected to see its population decline by about 4 per cent. This means that in 2050 there will be around 3.5 times more Africans (2.5 billion) than Europeans (707 million).

Meanwhile, the less-developed countries throughout Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and parts of Asia are still experiencing an increase in the youth populations, according to reports

Countries like India, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya will see the working-age shares of their population grow between now and 2050. Their challenge, experts believe, will be to make the investments in human and physical capital needed to take advantage of this demographic dividend.

So many of Africa’s young people grow up surrounded by poverty, inequality, conflict and instability, while access to education remains a challenge with about one third of adolescent girls not in school.

While unemployment remains a general challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, youth unemployment has remained at twice the adult rate and whilst young people aged 15-24 make up only 37 per cent of the working age population, they account for 60 per cent of all unemployed people in Africa.

Also, the growing belief is that issues of growing migration, radicalisation, and violent terrorism definitely will further weaken weak states and enhance existing threats to global security, and this calls for greater international solidarity.

However, dealing with the symptoms will not do it. Greater efforts are needed to deal with the root cause of the issues to address the continuously growing social demand generated by high population growth.

The demographic dividend is the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger, and 65 and older).

Achieving a demographic dividend requires that each country understand the size and distribution of its population, its current and projected age structure, and the pace of population growth.

Also, realising a demographic dividend requires multiple investments. The most essential are building the capabilities of people and ensuring their rights and freedoms to achieve their potential. Young people need the chance to gain the education and experience to succeed in a competitive global workplace, which demands more skills, education and technical expertise than ever before.

UNFPA, which has made issues around demographic dividend a priority, provides clear guidance on the “multiplier effects” of investments and how support for the rights and capabilities of young people will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an actionable and results-oriented way.

The agency also works to help countries realise the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, which links investments in each person to sustainable development.

Dividends are positive returns on investments, and in 2017 Africa has a huge opportunity to reap demographic dividends from her millions of youth and huge population size.

As the African Union (AU) summit begins this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, nations and leaders should seize the opportunity to make the right decisions, along with private sector partners to move the agenda forward, especially as the AU theme for 2017 is the demographic dividend. The best time to cash in on this dividend is now!

* Ngom, the UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, who has made the operationalisation of the demographic dividend a priority, writes from the regional office in Dakar, Senegal