ECA is committed to working with stakeholders to implement population dynamics

Company News of Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-04-24

Mr. Bakary Dosso, Acting Director of the Subregional Office of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) for West Africa, reaffirmed his willingness to work with key stakeholders to successfully implement the demographic dynamics for development.

He said ECA would strengthen its crucial role in promoting research and badysis of demographic dynamics and integrating relevant demo-economic policies into development programs.

Mr Dosso said this at the opening of a two-day validation workshop of the study on the operationalization of the Center for Demographic Dynamics for Development (DDD) from ECA to Accra.

DDD is changing the game, guided by the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063.

It is about helping the continent to effectively tackle one of its main challenges: sustained and inclusive economic growth that would create decent jobs, especially for young people.

Mr. Dosso acknowledged that population and development policies were essential to the sustainable development goals and national development agendas related to health, education, gender and economic growth, and stated that It was appropriate to take them seriously.

He noted that the subregion of West Africa was at the forefront of issues related to the dynamics and development of the population, recording a slowdown in economic growth these recent years, averaging 2.5%.

Dosso said the proportion of people in precarious work was close to 73%, with a poverty rate above 40%, with the exception of Cape Verde (31.8%) and Ghana (38.8%). , 6%), while the population was young. percent under 15 years.

Ms. Leticia A. Appiah, Executive Director of the National Population Council, urged the governments of the subregion to demonstrate the political will needed to implement population-based policies for women and men. optimal development.

She stated that the ECA study on DDD was an appropriate priority, as the subregion continued to experience the fastest growth among the number of nations in the world.
The recent Global Competitive Index has shown lower productivity levels.
She called for a revamping of the dynamics of growth in the country and the subregion, growth exceeding 2% hindered development.

Appiah said poverty levels of 40 per cent and an increasingly young population of 44 per cent could derail the entire demographic dynamic and become an additional threat to security; "If we want to solve the dynamics of today's unemployment, we should have laid the groundwork 15 years ago."

She stated that priority should be given to education and family planning issues in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the AU Development Agenda 2063.
She urged governments to step out of their comfort zones to make life better and more meaningful for citizens.

Mr. Amadou Diouf, economist at ECA West Africa, expressed the hope that a strategic direction and a 2019-2022 action plan would be formulated by the end of this year. closure of the session as a mechanism for coordination, monitoring and evaluation.