DAR ES SALAAM, Mar 03 (IPS) – Speaker of the Tanzanian Parliament and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Tulia Akson, has known as for daring and quick investments in younger folks to unlock the demographic dividend and speed up sustainable growth throughout Africa and Asia.
Talking on the African and Asian Parliamentarians’ Assembly on Inhabitants and Improvement in Dar es Salaam on Monday, February 24, Akson emphasised that youth empowerment have to be on the middle of nationwide insurance policies to make sure that fast inhabitants progress interprets into financial prosperity moderately than a disaster.
“We should take deliberate and coordinated measures to harness the demographic dividend by empowering our youth and making certain their energetic participation in financial growth,” Akson advised parliamentarians gathered from throughout Africa and Asia.
The convention, organized by the Asian Inhabitants and Improvement Affiliation (APDA) in collaboration with the African Discussion board of Parliamentarians on Inhabitants and Improvement (FPA) and Tanzania’s Parliamentary Affiliation on Inhabitants and Improvement (TPAPD), supplied a platform for legislators to debate legislative and coverage reforms wanted to advance inhabitants and growth objectives.
The occasion additionally drew help from the United Nations Inhabitants Fund (UNFPA) and the Japan Belief Fund (JTF), underscoring the urgency of population-centered growth methods.
A Demographic Window of Alternative
Africa’s inhabitants is projected to double to 2 billion by 2050, with younger folks making up the bulk. Specialists argue that if this youthful inhabitants is supplied with high quality schooling, healthcare, and financial alternatives, it might drive unprecedented financial transformation. Nevertheless, failure to behave might result in social unrest, elevated poverty, and financial stagnation.
In accordance with UNFPA, 42 % of Africa’s inhabitants is underneath the age of fifty, a determine that presents each a possibility and a problem. Whereas life expectancy has improved and maternal mortality has declined, vital gaps stay in entry to schooling, employment, and reproductive well being companies.
“Younger folks represent a big proportion of our inhabitants, and their neglect is a ticking time bomb that might hinder progress,” Akson warned.
Tanzania, she mentioned, has made strides in youth empowerment by initiatives akin to free schooling from major to secondary college, expanded pupil mortgage schemes, and a nationwide expertise growth program that equips younger folks with vocational and technical experience.
“We now have additionally launched youth entrepreneurship funds to help start-ups and small companies and expanded digital teaching programs to boost ICT proficiency amongst our youth,” Akson mentioned.
Regardless of such efforts, structural limitations persist, limiting younger folks’s entry to high quality jobs and financial alternatives.
Sexual and Reproductive Well being: A Key Pillar of Improvement
Akson additionally confused the significance of investing in sexual and reproductive well being schooling to make sure younger folks, notably ladies, could make knowledgeable decisions about their futures.
“We threat derailing our growth trajectory if we fail to put money into younger folks’s sexual and reproductive well being and rights,” she mentioned.
The UNFPA has constantly underscored that entry to reproductive well being companies is important for financial and social progress. Whereas contraceptive use has elevated in lots of nations, adolescent pregnancies, gender-based violence, and dangerous practices akin to baby marriage and feminine genital mutilation (FGM) stay widespread.
UNFPA Tanzania Nation Consultant Mark Schreiner famous that regardless of progress, “maternal mortality charges stay unacceptably excessive, with only some African nations on observe to satisfy the SDG goal of 70 deaths per 100,000 stay births by 2030.”
Equally, though extra ladies are utilizing trendy contraception voluntarily, thousands and thousands of adolescent ladies nonetheless lack entry to vital reproductive well being companies resulting from social stigma, coverage gaps, and insufficient funding.
Schreiner known as for pressing investments in complete sexuality schooling (CSE) and youth-friendly well being companies to empower younger folks with information and defend them from unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and dangerous cultural practices.
“Complete sexuality schooling and funding in younger folks’s well being, together with sexual and reproductive well being, have to be prioritized to speed up progress towards common well being protection,” Schreiner mentioned.
Parliamentarians’ Function in Advancing the Inhabitants Agenda
As policymakers, parliamentarians maintain vital affect over nationwide budgets and legislative reforms that impression inhabitants insurance policies. Akson urged her colleagues to make use of their constitutional mandates to push for insurance policies that deal with youth unemployment, gender-based violence, and reproductive well being entry.
“With the deadline for the SDGs quick approaching, we should act swiftly and decisively to take away the limitations that hinder younger folks’s growth,” she mentioned.
Japan’s Ambassador to Tanzania, Yasushi Misawa, recommended lawmakers for his or her dedication to addressing inhabitants challenges, stating, “Any answer on inhabitants points have to be primarily based on an understanding of every particular person. The function of parliamentarians, due to this fact, as representatives of their residents, is critically vital.”
Joseph Komwihangiro, Nation Director for Pathfinder Worldwide, a world civil society group offering sexual and reproductive well being companies, echoed this sentiment.
“Inhabitants knowledge is on the coronary heart of every thing we do. It helps policymakers enhance service supply and deal with probably the most urgent challenges going through communities,” he mentioned.
He urged parliamentarians to make sure that inhabitants knowledge interprets into inclusive insurance policies that prioritize the wants of weak teams, together with ladies, ladies, and marginalized communities.
World Crises Threatening Progress
The assembly additionally highlighted how world crises—together with armed conflicts, local weather change, and rising well being threats—are disproportionately affecting weak populations and threatening the conclusion of sustainable growth objectives.
“It’s profoundly regarding that escalating world crises akin to excessive climate situations and rising well being challenges are disproportionately affecting weak populations and derailing growth efforts,” Akson mentioned.
She cited the phrases of Tanzania’s founding father, Julius Nyerere: “The aim of growth is the folks. You can not develop issues; you develop folks.”
Akson emphasised that true and significant growth have to be people-centered, urging lawmakers to craft insurance policies that align with their residents’ distinctive realities, cultures, and aspirations.
Strengthening Partnerships for Improvement
With simply 5 years left to realize the 2030 Agenda, UN Secretary-Common António Guterres has known as for “a surge in implementation, large funding, and more practical partnerships” to drive progress throughout key SDGs, together with well being, schooling, gender equality, and financial growth.
Akson echoed this name, stressing that gender equality have to be on the core of all growth efforts.
“We can’t anticipate to realize the SDGs with out dismantling gender limitations and empowering all ladies and ladies,” she mentioned.
The Dar es Salaam Monday assembly concluded with a name for strengthened worldwide cooperation to maximise progress, notably in reforming the outdated world monetary structure that has left many creating nations fighting debt and underfunded social packages.
Because the assembly’s consequence doc is ready for submission to the upcoming TICAD9 summit in Japan in August 2025, lawmakers pledged to champion legislative and coverage reforms that can speed up the conclusion of the ICPD Programme of Motion and the Addis Ababa Declaration on Inhabitants and Improvement.
“Let’s be hopeful concerning the future that our empowered youths can create,” Akson mentioned, closing the convention with an optimistic tone.
For a lot of African and Asian nations, the longer term is blight with challenges. However as Akson and fellow parliamentarians have underscored, investing in youth, advancing reproductive well being rights, and enacting inclusive insurance policies might be vital in shaping a sustainable and equitable future.
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