The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has advocated for more specific policy measures to address Africa’s Population growth, currently put at 21 million per year.
ECA’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Abdalla Hamdok, made the call at the opening of five-dayRegional Conference onPopulation and Development in Addis Ababa on Monday.
Hamdok said the number of people on the continent had increased from 703 million in 1994 to a projected 1.2 billion in 2014.
“Each year, since the Cairo Consensus, the continent has added about 21 million persons to its population,” he said. “Africa has the youngest population and will remain so for decades in a rapidly ageing world. The median age is currently about 20 compared to a world average of 30, making Africa’s youth to present a potential resource and a great force for economic and political change.”
According to him, 2014 will mark the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, which took place in Cairo, where 179 governments committed to a 20 year Programme of Action to deliver human rights based development.
On her part, the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), Anne-Birggitte Albrectsen, said Africa’s youth presented a potential resource and a great force for economic and political change.
Albrectsen said the development would enhance accelerated economicgrowth thereby realising the benefits of the demographic dividend among many African nations, “while the continent continues to strive to lower fertility and child mortality.’’