The 9th African Population Conference has brought to light critical issues surrounding the continent’s demographic future and the necessary steps to ensure sustainable development.
Key speakers at the conference taking place at Bingu wa Mutharika International Convention Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi have emphasized the need for moving from policy formulation to effective implementation, addressing population growth, and ensuring resource efficiency.
In an interview, Executive Director at the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) Eliya Zulu has highlighted the urgent need for strategic investments in Africa’s growing population.
Zulu stressed that investments in health, education, skill development, and job creation are crucial in the development of the continent.
“Africa has a big population, and it’s going to continue growing into the future. It’s important that we regard this population as the most important resource that the continent has.
“It’s important that we must regard this population, the people, as the most important resource that a continent has. And if the continent must benefit from this population, we need to make the right investments in the people in terms of health, in terms of education, in terms of skill development, but also in job creation,” said Zulu.
Zulu also underscored the importance of not just increasing resources but also improving the efficiency of their use.
“Often we don’t ask the question, is the money that we’re already putting delivering the returns, the intended returns? And in many cases, there’s a lot of wastage,” he said.
He called for reforms in the education system, focusing on developing skills and entrepreneurship rather than merely passing exams.
“The urgency to act is really there. We have to act with urgency. Otherwise, we’ll miss the opportunity to turn this population into the driving force for socioeconomic development.”
In a separate interview, Honorable Cliff Mpundu, a parliamentarian from Zambia, echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the link between population and development.
“It is evident enough with the scientific research that our panellists, our tutors and so on, to say really we need to link population to development. There is no links, mostly our budget lines are always altered, and they are always being affected by the population,” Mpundu stated.
Mpundu also pointed out the compounded challenges posed by climate change, which he described as an invisible enemy ravaging the global and the region at large.
“And worse enough, we are in times where climate change is also another enemy, which is, as I have alluded to, firstly to say climate change is an invisible enemy, which is ravaging the global and the region at large.
He stressed the importance of aligning population growth with development aspirations to combat issues like poverty and high fertility rates effectively.
“We need to focus on where we need resources to go in order to realize the human capital potential that is being talked about in this conference,” Mpundu said.
In a separate interview, Dr. Shima Shehab, from Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population, who participated in sessions on family planning and climate change, emphasized the value of international cooperation and knowledge exchange.
“I think knowing other cultures and other trending in your countries in Africa is important. We can find many areas of cooperation and helping each other in making family planning and making resilience for vulnerable communities in our country and the African continent at large,” Shehab noted.
She also highlighted the similarities and differences between Egypt’s approaches and those discussed at the conference, expressing hope for future collaborative efforts.
The conference, which started on 20th May 2024 and will end on 24th May 2024 has brought together scientists, policymakers, and parliamentarians from across Africa to engage with evidence and share ideas.
The conference is being held under the theme: Road to 2030: Leveraging Africa’s human capital to achieve transformation in a world of uncertainty.
The African Population Conference (APC) is the biggest scientific meeting on population issues in Africa, put up every four years by the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS).
The conference provides a major platform for analysis of population dynamics, identification of knowledge gaps and facilitation of development discourse and seeks to generate pragmatic recommendations and policy insights that can address the pressing challenges and opportunities associated with Africa’s fast-growing population.
