Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
This policy brief explains the connection between the demographic dividend and
investments in voluntary family planning; highlights Africa's particular challenge in
achieving a demographic dividend and the need for immediate action; and underscores
the investments in health, education, and gender equity, as well as subsequent
economic policies, that are needed to open and take advantage of this window of
opportunity. Finally, the brief prioritizes actions for decision makers to make the most
of the demographic dividend.
Nigerias Demographic Dividend
A countrys population level depends on its fertility and mortality rates. Most
developing countries experienced high population growth rates in the 1960s-1990s
due to dramatic declines in mortality, especially among infants, as public health
improved. Population growth began to stabilize when fertility rates also fell. The
population age structure began to look less like a pyramid, with many young children
and progressively fewer older cohorts. Instead, a youth bulge began to appear as the
number of infants declined while the youth began to age entering working age and
eventually older ages.
A country can reap a demographic dividend if the size of its working age
population increases while the number outside that range declines due to sustained
lower fertility (average number of children per woman). A workforce with fewer
dependents relative to the working age population has the potential to boost economic
growth. The East Asian economic tigers such as Hong Kong, South Korea,
Singapore and Taiwan may owe up to a quarter or a third of their economic growth
to this phenomenon (Bloom et al., 2000). Similarly, a significant portion of Irelands
but is not using a modern family planning method. These women account for almost
80 percent of unintended pregnancies. When women can choose when and how often
to become pregnant, they are more likely to have fewer children and are better able to
achieve their desired family size.
How a young population can make development possible
Children are a great source of joy to their parents and an asset for each society.
Having too many children, however, can cause serious worries for families and entire
countries. This applies especially to less developed countries, mainly in South Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa. Wherever the number of children grows faster than the
possibility to provide the younger generation with the necessary schools, health
institutions or food, and the ability to give young people jobs is lacking, the situation
of the entire country deteriorates.
These countries find themselves in a vicious circle of poverty, high infant
mortality and high fertility rates. They cannot easily escape this circle because where
many young people live today the population will continue to grow: in the coming
years, most young people will reach the age in which they start to have families. In
countries like Niger or Uganda, half the population is under the age of 15.
Demographic development is like a slow moving barge because based on todays age
structure, its path is predetermined for decades.
A decisive factor for this transition is education especially for women.
Equally important is health care. Where many children die at a young age, it is
understandable that people have many children simply to protect themselves against
the worst-case scenario. Health care includes the availability of information and
family planning methods. Only with this information, can young people fulfill their
responsibility to plan their families.
Approximately 215 million women worldwide who want to avoid pregnancy
lack access to modern contraceptives. Development opportunities for families and
entire societies grow with a decline in birth rates. They can then invest more, and in an
improved manner, in the young people. In turn, succeeding generations will profit,
thus setting in motion a chain reaction of lowered birth rates, continuously improving
levels of education and increasing productivity.
References
1.
Carl Haub and Toshiko Kaneda, 2012 World Population Data Sheet
(Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2012).
2.
3.
World Health Organization and UNICEF, Building a Future for Women and
Children: The 2012 Report (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012).