The world passed a collective milestone in October when the planet’s human population topped 7 billion drawing some development professionals to consider the impact of such a large, and in the developing world, increasingly youthful population.
At a special event at the EuropeAid Infopoint, experts working in the field of population and reproductive health focused their attention on the role young people play in deciding the size and location of future generations.
“The mothers of tomorrow are already alive today,” said Ivan Hermans, Senior Policy and External Relations Adviser at the United Nation’s Population Fund, UNFPA. How well these girls and women are informed and empowered will help them to decide how many children they have.
In many regions, a shorter life expectancy and often considerably higher birth rate combine to make populations markedly youthful. In some regions, some 60% of the population is under 25 years old.
Indeed, this trend is so strong that across the world under-25 year olds make up 43% of the world’s population.
“Even an average difference of just 0.5 children per woman more or less can have a dramatic difference to the global total population,” he said.
According to the medium variant of the latest United Nations projections the world population will reach 9.3 billion by the middle of this century. But the high projection variant, whose fertility is just half a child above that in the medium variant, produces a world population of 10.6 billion in 2050 whereas the low variant, whose fertility remains half a child below that of the medium, produces a population that reaches 8.1 billion in 2050.
There is a clear worldwide trend that when given the choice and opportunity individuals and couples choose to have less children. Access to information, products and services is therefore very important. Having a better educated and informed youth with access to more life opportunities can result in slower population growth and speed up a country’s ability to reduce poverty.
The challenges vary from region to region with educated populations typically choosing to have significantly less children than uneducated populations. Income levels can also be factor in deciding family size as can locality. Urban communities typically choose to have smaller families than their rural compatriots who often lack access to information and services.
Women’s empowerment and education can also have a significant impact on fertility rates as women who are able to choose and control the number of children they have through access to contraception and health care facilities, typically have fewer children.
Without the ability to make informed choices about family size, some communities are trapped in a cycle of underdevelopment and poverty. Breaking this cycle is crucial and capacity development is the key to unlocking that downward spiral, according to Mr Hermans.
"Capacity development of the different actors in the field is the only real strategy that we know is sustainable," Mr Hermans said.
For families in a relatively better off situation, fertility rates are generally dropping or stabilising. When fertility rates drop below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, as is the case in much of Northern Europe, governments face the challenge of meeting the needs of an aging population that is relying on a smaller proportion of working age people to keep the economy buoyant.
Harnessing the Potential of the World’s Youth
Such a large, youthful population also presents an opportunity, according to UNFPA. In their recent ‘State of the World Population, 2011’ report, UNFPA called for greater efforts to be made to ensure that young people all over the world have the opportunity to work and fulfil their economic, social and personal potential.
DSW, which stands for Deutche Stiftung Weltbevolkerung, is a German NGO that provides sexual and reproductive health care services, youth clubs and other youth-focused initiatives aimed at dealing with changing population dynamics and reducing poverty. Essentially, it’s about developing the capacity of young people to take informed decisions and actions.
“For us it’s very important that youth organisations, and youth led organisations, receive capacity to improve the way that they work, to advocate effectively and to engage with processes that are ongoing at national, regional and even district levels,” said Andrew Pavao, EU Resource Mobilisation Officer for DSW.
DSW uses peer-to-peer learning, youth groups and support groups to educate young people in developing and middle income countries about their reproductive health and reproductive choices and bolster their life skills helping them to better engage with their society and make the most of their opportunities.
Focus on Girls
Eef Wuyts from the International Planned Parenthood Institute (IPPF) went one step further, calling for not only for donors to focus their energies on the youth, but specifically to target young women and girls.
“We have a strong belief that girls can be a driver of development,” said Ms Wuyts. “They are real actors for change in our society because if you work and target girls, you will target them, but you will also have wide repercussion on their communities and even on society overall.”
“It has been demonstrated that targeting girls works on them, but also has an impact on their family, friends, peers, men and boyfriends,” said Ms Wuyts.
IPPF is running the ‘Girls Decide’ Initiative, aimed at empowering girls and young women to make their own reproductive health choices concerning sex, children and marriage. IPPF have produced a number of informative videos on their project, available online: http://www.ippf.org/en/What-we-do/Adolescents/Girls+Decide.htm
Ms Wyuts urged donors to put girls at centre of their development planning when working on population dynamics.
“There is a huge momentum to focus on girls,” said Ms Wyuts, “but please don’t forget their sexual and reproductive health and rights needs. If you don’t address them you will not get the impact you want on them, on their rights and their well-being and you won’t get the impact on the realisation of development outcomes.”
Log in with your EU Login account to post or comment on the platform.