Message from the Regional Director
Politicians, leaders and stakeholders across West and Central Africa are clear. We must put young people first if we are to harness the demographic dividend, build resilience and transform our region to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Africa We Want.
At the beginning of 2016, following strong advocacy from UNFPA and other stakeholders, the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government underlined this commitment by agreeing to focus their 28th and 29th Ordinary Sessions in 2017 on ‘Harnessing the demographic dividend through investments in youth’.
They further called on UNFPA and its partners to develop a roadmap with key deliverables and milestones for 2017 and beyond.
UNFPA West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) has taken this call for action seriously and is committed to support the region in this regard. Our proactive contribution to this continental priority corresponds with UNFPA’s own strategic plan and its focus on improving people’s lives – in particular young people, women and girls. This strategic plan and its accompanying mode of engagement underline the need for a unified focus and an integrated approach – because by working together we can achieve so much more for the women and girls whose lives we seek to transform.
The AU’s call has encouraged a partner-led approach to long-term development plans that will transform the continent and ensure shared prosperity whilst showing respect for our planet.
By collaborating with others, we can better build the resilience of people, communities, health systems and countries.
This year, we have used that call as a lever to bring together and mobilise political leaders, parliamentarians, faith-based leaders, entrepreneurs from the private sector, researchers, scientists, voluntary groups and young people themselves, to proactively participate in delivering a better future.
The demographic dividend is so important in WCA because nearly two-thirds of our population are under 24 years old. But it can only be harnessed by making strategic investments and policy interventions to allow parents to plan families better and to improve education, skills development, health systems, economic reforms, job creation, good governance and accountability.
The crucial factor is to bring about a demographic transition – a shift from high to low mortality and fertility levels and a resulting reduction of the dependency ratio. This transition is at the core of what UNFPA in WCA is striving for. It is also at the heart of some of the ongoing regional flagship collaborative platforms – the French Muskoka Fund, the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend initiative, the Ouagadougou Partnership on Family Planning and also the joint programmes with UNICEF to end child marriage and female genital mutilation.
Our focus is on improving the lives of women and young people but our overriding philosophy is to ‘leave no-one behind’. If we bring about the demographic dividend by improving opportunities for young people, allowing mothers to plan their pregnancies and making childbirth safe for mother and child, the overall effect will make life better for the entire population – and we will, indeed, have helped ensure a life of dignity for all.
This report is a summary of what the team at WCARO and in our country offices did in 2016 to advance the wellbeing of women and young people. It also shows how we prepared and engaged constituencies so that in 2017 we can focus on securing resources and moving forward actions on Africa’s demographic dividend.
This report is not only about our work – it is also about the work we carried out with so many strategic partners. It is about what other organizations and stakeholders helped us achieve towards our shared goal: a transformed Africa with healthy, educated and productive citizens.
They may not share our specific focus of planned pregnancies, safe motherhood and empowered young people, but by working towards a healthier, fairer, peaceful and more prosperous Africa – driven by more productive, less dependent young people – they share our intent. Because all our visions are interlinked and interconnected.
This year has seen us work with the private sector in many new ways, from getting together with a technology company to prepare demographic dividend observatories to collaborating with a hotel chain to fundraise for women suffering from the crippling, ostracizing condition of Obstetric Fistula.
We brought faith-based leaders together to brainstorm ways of advancing family planning, ending child marriage and female genital mutilation and organized trainings for those in government responsible for developing policy.
We have helped young people voice their opinions and campaign for their needs by enabling them to participate in meetings with world leaders – as well as organize their own conferences.
Our partnerships with the Research Center for Economics and Applied Finance of University of Thies and others are allowing us to offer solid research skills to countries as they work to prepare their own demographic profiles to plan for the challenges ahead.
Governments from across the world,1 gave us the funding we need to train midwives and community nurses and provide family planning commodities to women and girls in some of the most remote areas of our region.
Former Heads of States pledged their support and commitment to bridge the generational gap and make a difference in the lives of our young people in the continent.
Thanks to sustained advocacy, parliamentarians are also fully onboard to pass and implement laws that will provide a safe environment for our young people to reach their full potential.
These are just some of the ways we are working with others to invest in women, girls and young people in general. So much more is documented in this report.
By cooperating, collaborating and communicating with our partners, we see improved results.
I applaud all colleagues at WCARO and across the region who are working so hard to make this happen and I thank all our partners who are helping us achieve our dream – putting young people first and achieving the demographic dividend for all in Africa.
Mabingue Ngom,
Regional Director
West and Central Africa Region