Ougadougou, Burkina Faso,
December 12, 2011 – The
United Nations Fund for Population Activities ( UNFPA ) says many African
countries lack adequate disaggregated population data for decision making and
planning purposes. UNFPA said at the 6th African Population Conference in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 6 December.
Richmond Tiemoko, presenting on
behalf of the Director of UNFPA Africa Regional Office, Bunmi Makinwa, praised
Burkina Faso for its “consistent efforts to address population issues.
” However, “it is estimated that
only half of the African population was enumerated during the 2000 round of
population and housing censuses. Even where censuses were conducted, there were
many situations that hindered the use of the data, including the late release
of results and insufficient in-depth analysis and dissemination.” He called for
the democratization of population data.
The celebration of a world of 7
billion, with over a billion from Africa, provides an opportunity to look back,
act on the present and think about the future.
“As we, the 7 billion, count on
each other, we should take a firm stand to ensure that women and young people do
not only count in population data and legal records but they also count on us
for the realization of their sexual and reproductive health and rights,” he
said.
He cautioned that major
challenges remain, particularly in the area of ensuring universal access to
reproductive health services.
“Another challenge is inadequate
investment in young people, yet we know that social investment in young
people’s needs including education, health and employment can lead to
sustainable development. As you all know, a youthful population could be an
asset with strategic investment but it also has the potential of being a
liability,” he said.
Hundreds of population experts,
researchers and others from Africa, North America, Latin America and Europe met
in the capital city of Burkina Faso for the conference.
The five-day meeting was
organized by the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS) and the Government
of Burkina Faso, with UNFPA as a major partner. The conference seeks to aid the
dissemination and critical evaluation of new research findings on emerging
issues on population and their implications for Africa’s socio-economic
development initiatives.
Burkina Faso Minister of
Secondary and Higher Education, Prof. Albert Ouedraogo, called for the
education of young people: “When the youth are well educated, they constitute a
source of potential, vitality, innovation and economic growth.”
He shared his government’s
concern about the existing gaps to achieve the MDGs, notably MDGs 4 and 5. This
conference, held four years before the deadline of 2015 to achieve the MDGs,
should come up with lessons for development policies aimed at improving
people’s welfare. A paradigm shift is required, he said.
Ms Eliya Zulu, President of UAPS,
noted a number of issues that need to be addressed, including the rapid growth
of the African population, notably in the fragile Sahel region where the
population is expected to treble within the next forty years.
During the week, participants
will hold series of plenary sessions geared towards using African population
issues for sustainable development, including sexual and reproductive rights;
maternal mortality; future of population programmes; international migration
and human capital; gender issues including gender-based violence; youth,
population and climate change; demographic dividend and MDGs in Africa, and new
methodologies of data collection and analysis. UNFPA is to organize a panel on
the 2010 round of censuses in Africa.
At the close of the conference,
the Ouagadougou Declaration will be issued to serve as a consensus roadmap for
the future of African population issues.
The Union for African Population
Studies (UAPS) is a pan-African not-for-profit organization established in 1984
by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to promote the
scientific study of population and the application of research evidence in
development planning in Africa.
Individual members of UAPS are
scholars and professionals working in the field of population and development
in Africa. Membership is also open to research centres, institutions of
training, and development partner institutions in and out of Africa.
ZANIS
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