Invest in the young: UNFPA

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has called upon the developing countries to invest more on young people ‘now’ to reap the demographic dividend.

Nurul Islam Hasibfrom Bangkokbdnews24.com
Published : 18 Nov 2014, 06:17 AM
Updated : 18 Nov 2014, 08:43 AM

The call came during the launch of its annual flagship report ‘State of World Population 2014’ on Tuesday at its Asia-Pacific regional headquarter in Bangkok as elsewhere in the world including Bangladesh.

This year the report focused on 1.8 billion young people aged between 10 years and 24 years across the world, calling it ‘The Power of 1.8 billion’.

The report is relevant to Bangladesh as the country is witnessing a demographic change with low fertility and mortality rates.

UNFPA says young people of this age group comprise 30 percent of the total population of Bangladesh, the world’s eighth most populous country.

It gives ‘a window of opportunity’ for any developing economy to flourish if properly utilised.

But it warned that the opportunity would not come “automatically”.

A country has to invest for that and its ‘now’ as the young people is becoming older by the day.

“A young, working-age population can propel economies forward if properly used,” according to the report.

And for that the report suggested economic management, good governance and right policies without which countries cannot be successful to reap the benefit of demographic changes.

A group of UNFPA officials of the regional office presented the report to the visiting journalists of the Asia-Pacific region as part of its global launch.

The report presented East Asian countries as example.

In the 1950s and 1960s, several East Asian economies invested “heavily in young people’s capabilities and in expanding their access to voluntary family planning, enabling individuals to start families later and have fewer children”.

The result was “unprecedented” economic growth like what happened in South Korea that saw per capital GDP grow about 2,200 percent between 1950 and 2008.

The report underscored the need of quality education and access to employment for the young people in this regard.

Government statistics show Bangladesh has been successful in enrolling children in primary education, but failed to retain them all at secondary level.
This poor school drop-out group later takes up any work to make a living that UNFPA says falling into the trap of a “circle of working poverty” when they work but cannot earn a decent living.
It is even horrific for the girls of Bangladesh in this age group as the country tops the rank of child marriage in the region with more than 60 percent girls being married off before the age of 18.
An 18-year old ‘Marena’ from northern Bangladesh who already had a child told UNFPA that she was married off as her parents were poor and later she had to quit school.
“I could not resist as I was poor. But I’ll not let it happen in my daughter’s life,” she expressed her resolve.
UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehim in his foreword said today’s record 1.8 billion young people present “an enormous opportunity to transform the future”.
“They are the innovators, creators, builders and leaders of the future. But they can transform the future only if they have skills, health, decision-making, and real choices in the life”.
The report also called upon the global leaders to keep youth “at the central” of the sustainable development goal that will follow the MDGs after 2015.
“A young person of 10 in 2015 will be an adult of 25 in 2030, the target year for achieving the next generation of sustainable development goals,” it says.