Dar es Salaam — Speaker of the Tanzanian Parliament and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Tulia Akson, has known as for daring and fast investments in younger individuals to unlock the demographic dividend and speed up sustainable growth throughout Africa and Asia.
Speaking on the African and Asian Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Population and Development 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 development interprets into financial prosperity reasonably than a disaster.
“We must take deliberate and coordinated measures to harness the demographic dividend by empowering our youth and ensuring their active participation in economic development,” Akson advised parliamentarians gathered from throughout Africa and Asia.
The convention, organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) in collaboration with the African Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (FPA) and Tanzania’s Parliamentary Association on Population and Development (TPAPD), supplied a platform for legislators to debate legislative and coverage reforms wanted to advance inhabitants and growth objectives.
The occasion additionally drew assist from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Japan Trust Fund (JTF), underscoring the urgency of population-centered growth methods.
A Demographic Window of Opportunity
Africa’s inhabitants is projected to double to 2 billion by 2050, with younger individuals making up the bulk. Experts argue that if this youthful inhabitants is supplied with high quality schooling, healthcare, and financial alternatives, it might drive unprecedented financial transformation. However, failure to behave might result in social unrest, elevated poverty, and financial stagnation.
According to UNFPA, 42 p.c of Africa’s inhabitants is underneath the age of fifty, a determine that presents each a possibility and a problem. While life expectancy has improved and maternal mortality has declined, essential gaps stay in entry to schooling, employment, and reproductive well being companies.
“Young people constitute a significant proportion of our population, and their neglect is a ticking time bomb that could hinder progress,” Akson warned.
Tanzania, she mentioned, has made strides in youth empowerment by initiatives reminiscent of free schooling from major to secondary college, expanded scholar mortgage schemes, and a nationwide expertise growth program that equips younger individuals with vocational and technical experience.
“We have also launched youth entrepreneurship funds to support start-ups and small businesses and expanded digital education programs to enhance ICT proficiency among our youth,” Akson mentioned.
Despite such efforts, structural limitations persist, limiting younger individuals’s entry to high quality jobs and financial alternatives.
Parliamentarians agreed to take fast motion to empower youth at a current assembly organized by Asian and African parliamentarians. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Key Pillar of Development
Akson additionally careworn the significance of investing in sexual and reproductive well being schooling to make sure younger individuals, significantly ladies, could make knowledgeable decisions about their futures.
“We risk derailing our development trajectory if we fail to invest in young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights,” she mentioned.
The UNFPA has constantly underscored that entry to reproductive well being companies is crucial for financial and social progress. While contraceptive use has elevated in lots of international locations, adolescent pregnancies, gender-based violence, and dangerous practices reminiscent of baby marriage and feminine genital mutilation (FGM) stay widespread.
UNFPA Tanzania Country Representative Mark Schreiner famous that regardless of progress, “maternal mortality rates remain unacceptably high, with only a few African countries on track to meet the SDG target of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.”
Similarly, though extra girls are utilizing fashionable contraception voluntarily, hundreds of thousands of adolescent ladies nonetheless lack entry to essential 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 individuals with information and defend them from unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and dangerous cultural practices.
“Comprehensive sexuality education and investment in young people’s health, including sexual and reproductive health, must be prioritized to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage,” Schreiner mentioned.
Parliamentarians’ Role in Advancing the Population Agenda
As policymakers, parliamentarians maintain important 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 tackle youth unemployment, gender-based violence, and reproductive well being entry.
“With the deadline for the SDGs fast approaching, we must act swiftly and decisively to remove the barriers that hinder young people’s development,” she mentioned.
Japan’s Ambassador to Tanzania, Yasushi Misawa, recommended lawmakers for his or her dedication to addressing inhabitants challenges, stating, “Any solution on population issues must be based on an understanding of each individual. The role of parliamentarians, therefore, as representatives of their citizens, is critically important.”
Joseph Komwihangiro, Country Director for Pathfinder International, a world civil society group offering sexual and reproductive well being companies, echoed this sentiment.
“Population data is at the heart of everything we do. It helps policymakers improve service delivery and address the most pressing challenges facing communities,” he mentioned.
He urged parliamentarians to make sure that inhabitants information interprets into inclusive insurance policies that prioritize the wants of weak teams, together with girls, ladies, and marginalized communities.
Global Crises Threatening Progress
The assembly additionally highlighted how international crises–including armed conflicts, local weather change, and rising well being threats–are disproportionately affecting weak populations and threatening the conclusion of sustainable growth objectives.
“It is profoundly concerning that escalating global crises such as extreme weather conditions and emerging health challenges are disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations and derailing development efforts,” Akson mentioned.
She cited the phrases of Tanzania’s founding father, Julius Nyerere: “The purpose of development is the people. You cannot develop things; you develop people.”
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 Development
With simply 5 years left to attain the 2030 Agenda, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has known as for “a surge in implementation, massive investment, and more effective 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 cannot expect to achieve the SDGs without dismantling gender barriers and empowering all women and girls,” she mentioned.
The Dar es Salaam Monday assembly concluded with a name for strengthened worldwide cooperation to maximise progress, significantly in reforming the outdated international monetary structure that has left many growing international locations combating debt and underfunded social packages.
As 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 may speed up the conclusion of the ICPD Programme of Action and the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development.
“Let’s be hopeful about the future that our empowered youths can create,” Akson mentioned, closing the convention with an optimistic tone.
For many African and Asian international locations, the longer term is blight with challenges. But as Akson and fellow parliamentarians have underscored, investing in youth, advancing reproductive well being rights, and enacting inclusive insurance policies might be essential in shaping a sustainable and equitable future.
IPS UN Bureau Report