Harnessing the demographic dividend in West Africa and contributing to the achievement of the SDGs

Uneca
A regional workshop on Demographic Dividend Sensitive budgeting (DDSB) on 4 – 7 July 2023 in Niamey, Niger
6 July 2023
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
press release

Niamey (Niger), July 04, 2023 - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through its Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, in collaboration with the Regional Consortium for Research in Generational Economics (CREG) is organizing from 4th  to 7th July, 2023 in Niamey, Niger, a technical workshop on "Aligning the Demographic Dividend Monitoring Index (DDMI) with the Functional Budget and Performing Budget  Elasticity Analysis" to build the capacity of five selected member states, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo and Senegal, in assessing the investments required to  harness the demographic dividend, as well as in performing budget elasticity analysis.

This meeting will finalize the remaining technical stage of the Budgeting Sensitive to Demographic Dividend  (BSDD) process, and follows on from the regional capacity-building workshop held in Cotonou, Benin, from 22nd to 27th May, 2023, on the retropolation of the DDMI for the period 2001-2020 for the aforementioned member states.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the workshop, the Secretary General of Niger's Ministry of Planning, Mr. Saadou Bakoye, pointed out that "to accelerate the achievement of conditions for sustainable and  inclusive growth conducive to harnessing  the demographic dividend, the traditional national budget, translated into a functional budget, must be made consistent with the dimensions of the Demographic Dividend Monitoring Index".

For her part, Mrs. Ngone Diop, Director of the ECA's Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, affirmed that "This step will enable beneficiary countries to be better equipped to identify sectors requiring significant investment to seize the demographic dividend and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through optimal resource allocation". "With an estimated population of 410 million in 2021, an annual growth rate ranging from 0.9% for Cape Verde to 3.7% for Niger, and a regional average of 2.4%, West Africa's demographic weight represents 30% of the African population and around 5% of the world's population. This demographic profile has enormous implications for the sectoral policies and resources of our countries, which must respond to the growing social and economic needs of the population, against a backdrop of multifaceted crises affecting public resources and the fiscal space of our countries", explained Mrs. Ngone Diop.

Representing the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Niger, Mrs. Anne-Marie Rachelle Mian, Country-Representative of UN Women in Niger highlighted that "This technical workshop comes at the right time, given the situation of rapid demographic growth in Africa, and particularly in West Africa. This technical workshop offers a unique opportunity to assess the efforts and investments needed to capture the demographic dividend and consequently to achieve SDG3, SDG4, SDG5, SDG8 and SDG10".

As for the representative of the CREG Coordinator, Dr. OGA Jean Baptiste stated that "this technical workshop constitutes a relevant framework for generating evidence to inform political decision-makers on the urgent actions to be taken to seize the demographic dividend in sub-Saharan Africa".

The meeting was attended by 25 experts from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

For further information, please contact: Tahirou Gouro, Communications Officer, ECA/SRO-WA       Email: gouro2@un.org

-Ends-

About the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) in 1958 as one of the UN’s five regional commissions, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA’s) mandate is to promote the economic and social development of its Member States, foster intraregional integration and promote international cooperation for Africa’s development. ECA is made up of 54 Member States and plays a dual role as a regional arm of the UN and as a key component of the African institutional landscape.

For more information, visit: www.uneca.org

 

Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org

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