Build capacity of youth to transform nation— Mr Kwame Pianim

The country must deliberately mobilise its abundant resources to educate, train and keep the youth gainfully engaged to live and work in their respective communities to help spur economic transformation, renowned Economist, Mr Kwame Pianim, has said.

He said since the demography of the country was tilting towards a youthful population, there was the need to transform the “youth bulge” challenge that may confront the country into a social and economic dividend.

“It is estimated that by 2030 we may have about half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa in the 15 to 29 years cohort subsisting on less than a dollar a day.

“We need deliberate clear-eyed and far-sighted social and economic intervention policies aimed at ensuring that the demographic deck deals us a good hand,” the economist added. 

Dr Pianim was speaking at the first national Demographic Summit in Accra yesterday on the theme: “Ghana’s challenge of the demographic bulge 2030 and beyond”.

Stakeholders at the two-day summit will discuss demographics as one of the greatest challenges to public health, the economy and public security.

Youth bulge challenge

The ‘youth bulge’ theory indicates that the presence of more than 20 per cent of young people in a country raises the potential for rebellion and unrest.

History, Mr Pianim said, suggested that the youth bulge tended to be associated with civil unrest and revolution as it happened in China, Japan and Latin America before their demographic transition.

“Of course there were a few nay-sayers from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa warning about the challenges of the demographic bulge and how we may miss the demographic dividend and even worse, the teeming youth rather than being a factor for economic transformation, may become a force for destabilisation,” he said.

It is envisaged that by 2030, Ghana will be youthful while Europe, North America and Japan will be all grey.

Challenges

To help make gains from the country’s youthful population and turn the challenge of a youth bulge into economic and social dividend, Mr Pianim said the immediate and future challenges confronting them must be addressed.

He said how to feed, shelter, educate and promote meaningful health care and employment to 40 million Ghanaians in ten years by 2030 were issues that needed to be addressed now.

According to him, the government must focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education to help keep the bulk of the 15 to 29 year-olds in school for skills acquisition.

Aside from that, Mr Pianim said the country must strengthen its budding generation of ICT savvy and social media aficionados who are globally connected.

“Our youth are ICT savvy and our women are world leaders in new enterprise ownership, entrepreneurs by necessity, they will do better with policy support. Working women are good for positive demographic trends,” he said. 

Mr Pianim further asked the government to be mindful that any sensible and viable national planning must be firmly anchored on sound population policy.

“The time has come to strengthen the birth and death registry and locate it firmly at the district level to become part of national identification with a district number for each child as the basis for all national documentation,” the economist added.

Implementation of reforms

The Executive Director of the National Population Council, Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, called on the government to implement “long overdue” reforms that would promote more equitable outcomes and shared goals.

She said reproductive health was recommended as a panacea towards reversing the stalled socio-economic growth in the country because of the strong linkage between reproductive health, equitable and inclusive development.

Dr Appiah further said the COVID-19 pandemic presented the country with an opportunity to create a healthier, equitable and more prosperous future by recognising and appreciating that healthy population underpinned development.