The African demography is being very appealing to the decision actors but most particularity to thinkers from all over the world. Indeed, it gets all the attention and is the topic of all the discussions happening in Summets about emergence in the African continent.
For example, the UN Regional forum convened in Dakar, all the regional directors from all UN office present in Africa and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank. In that very important meeting, they addressed the issue of the African Demography which represents both a potential and an obstacle.
The issue of the African demography is relevant because the continent has more than 200 millions inhabitants who are between the age of 15 and 24 years old, what makes Africa the largest young population in the world. It is even predicted that the number is going to double by 2045. When some see it as an opportunity to be taken , others in the other hand see it as an issue that would be hard to handle. Thus, the President of France Emmanuel Macron while being interviewed by an ivorian coast journalist at the G20 Summet, and said that the hight rate of fertility in the continent represents an obstacle in the sustainable development of those countries.
The African youth: a pool of human ressources
The thousands of desperate young African that are washed up, every day, on beaches on the Northside, the discreet exodus of the privileged young people to Western countries, in the pursuit of a “better life”, are elements that could ruin the young African demography yet still so full of potential.
Some people like David Anthony who oversaw Unicef “2030 generation” report, shares the same view on the subject. He talks about a real potential in terms of demography in Africa. According to him “thanks to a very young and active population, there will be “a window of opportunity” for a lot of African countries because it creates an opportunity to generate profit from that demography and allow a rapid growth, a high employment rate and a way out of poverty for many homes.
That goes to say that the full of new ideas, skills and energy youth, bearer of the future generation of leaders, has a vital part to play in the African development. However, important investments are needed to actually make it all happen, in real life.