The 2014 State of the World Population Report has been launched in Accra with a call on governments to invest in the youth to yield maximum benefits from them as the shapers and leaders of the future.
Titled “The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth and the Transformation of the Future”, the report seeks to encourage governments across the world to turn the population of the world’s youth from being a challenge into an enormous human resource for development.
It called on governments to invest in the capacity building of the youth through education, improve healthcare delivery, prioritise science, technology and innovation, and muster the political will to place the youth at the centre of national development.
Giving an overview of the report, Prof. Stephen Kwankye of the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) of the University of Ghana, said: “Once you invest in the youth, you are sure to end poverty.”
National launch
The 2014 State of the World Population Report was launched at the global level on November 18, 2014.
Out of the estimated 7.3 billion world population, the youth constitute 1.8 billion, a figure described by demographic analysts as unprecedented in the history of the world.
The local launch of the report at the Accra International Conference Centre yesterday was meant to put the details of the report into national perspective.
Prof. Kwankye stressed the need for the government to put the youth at the centre of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in order to reap what he described as the “demographic dividend”.
He also urged the government to implement policies that would help take advantage of the “youth bulge” before it turned into a “youth bomb that would explode in our faces”.
Government’s pledge
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who launched the report, pledged the government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations of the report and promoting the cause of the youth.
He said the interest of the youth was placed at the centre of many government programmes, citing the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) and the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) programmes.
Mr Ayariga called on the private sector to also look at how best it could take advantage of opportunities outlined in the report.
The launch was under the auspices of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Office in Accra.
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