Events

An AFIDEP team that has been involved in offering technical assistance to different countries’ governments in Africa for the development of roadmaps towards harnessing the demographic dividend will facilitate a workshop on the demographic dividend (DD) in Gaborone, Botswana between November 22 and 24, 2016.

The main objective of the workshop is to assess Botswana’ prospects for harnessing the DD and demonstrate priority policy and programme options that the country should adopt to optimise its DD in line with its development aspirations.

The AFIDEP team is led by Dr. Bernard Onyango, Knowledge Translation scientist and the manager of the demographic dividend programme, who is based in Nairobi. He will be supported by Dr. Grace Kumchulesi, Knowledge Translation Scientist based in Malawi and Nairobi-based Ms. Eunice Mueni, Knowledge Translation Officer.

The Botswana Country Director for UNFPA, of which the Country Representative for Botswana will be involved in the workshop, is supporting this work in Botswana. Others include representatives from the Botswana Government ministries and the University of Cape Town (UCT), represented by Dr. Morne Oosthuizen and Dr. Zaakhir Ahmad. UCT is leading in the use of the National Transfer Account (NTA) modelling methodology to guide the technical process.

Participants at the workshop are drawn from the National Statistical Office of the ministries of health, labour, agriculture and UNFPA. The study is one of the four country studies funded by UNFPA’s East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO). Others are Namibia, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) and Zimbabwe. Countries are also making financial contribution towards this process to in the spirit of local ownership.