Training Workshop on the Demographic Dividend in Africa

Yaoundé, Cameroon, 12-21 January 2015

Organized by the IUSSP Network for Strengthening Demographic Training in Francophone Africa

The Network's Steering Committee:

• Chair: Parfait Eloundou Enyegue (Cornell University)

• Membership: Gervais Beninguisse (Institut de formation et de Recherche Démographiques - IFORD), Philippe Bocquier (Université Catholique de Louvain), Valérie Delaunay (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - IRD), Jean François Kobiane (Université de Ouagadougou), Richard Marcoux (Université de Laval).

The Training Workshop on the Analysis of the Demographic Dividend in Africa and Its Implications for the Economic Emergence of African Countries was organized at the Institut de Formation et de Recherche Démographiques (IFORD) by the IUSSP Network for Strengthening Demographic Training in Francophone Africa (FraNet), in collaboration with IFORD and the Cellule d'Appui à la Recherche et l'Enseignement des Institutions Francophones d'Afrique (CARE-IFA).

This workshop builds on one held in Ouagadougou in September 2014 on the same topic, with a greater emphasis on communication. It was attended by some sixty national and international participants: international experts from fourteen countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Luxemburg, Mauritania, Niger, Philippines, Senegal, Togo, United States); representatives of ministries responsible for development planning; representatives of universities and major training schools; representatives of the civil society working in the field of population and development; IFORD students.

The workshop objectives were to:

• train researchers in accounting methods to estimate the demographic dividend;
• provide feedback on the results of a study on the first signs of a school-related dividend in Africa;
• encourage Cameroonian policy makers and researchers to take an interest in this concept;
• identify strategic directions to enable Francophone African countries to take advantage of the demographic dividend.

In addition to the training sessions on methodologies to analyse the demographic dividend, Jeff Jordan, President of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), led working sessions for both researchers and journalists on how to present research results to policy makers.

The evaluation conducted after the workshop indicates that participants found the training on decomposition methods and their application to the analysis of the demographic dividend very useful. In addition, they greatly appreciated the competence and availability of facilitators and assistants, the workshop’s pedagogy, and the meeting with policymakers. Improvements could be made on the logistics.

• The web page for the Francophone Network (FraNet).

Funding: The IUSSP Network for Strengthening the Demographic Training in Francophone Africa is supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.