Events

A team from AFIDEP will co-facilitate a high-level workshop on the demographic dividend in Namibia, which will take place between 13 and 16 December 2016 at the Namibia Institute of Culinary Education (NICE) Restaurant in Windhoek. It will focus on the use of the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology to come up with the country’s policy and strategic options for harnessing the demographic dividend. AFIDEP will co-facilitate the workshop with the University of Cape Town (UCT).

The workshop has three key objectives. Firstly, it will seek to review the demographic and economic opportunities and challenges and asses their implications for attainment of Namibia’s development aspirations. The second objective is to assess Namibia’s demographic profile and its implications for harnessing the demographic dividend using the NTA methodology, while the third is to demonstrate policy options for optimising Namibia’s chances of earning a demographic dividend.

AFIDEP is represented by Dr Bernard Onyango, Knowledge Translation Scientist and programme manager of AFIDEP’s demographic dividend programme and Ms Eunice Mueni, Knowledge Translation Officer. Mr Morne Oosthuizen of UCT, an expert on NTA methodology, will lead sessions on NTA application to the Namibia Context.

Participants at the workshop will include the UNFPA Country Representative for Namibia; representatives from Government ministries of health, labour and agriculture and officials drawn from National Statistical Office.

The workshop will present a platform for sharing the findings of the country-profile study for Namibia and an opportunity to gather further insights to inform the study report for Namibia. It is part of four country studies funded by UNFPA ESARO. Others are Botswana, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) and Zimbabwe. Each of the countries involved is making financial contribution towards the workshop, a sign of the value attached by each country to the demographic dividend as a pathway to accelerate socio-economic development and to affirm country ownership of the process. A country report for Namibia will be prepared by AFIDEP following the workshop.