Policy Briefs

About 80 percent of Malawi’s population of 17.2 million are aged below 35 years and 46 percent are below 15 years. Malawi’s Government needs to make strategic investments in the youth as they can be critical agents for positive socio-economic change if they are empowered to innovate and engage in economic productivity. On the other hand, the price of inaction is high; uneducated, unskilled, unemployed, and disillusioned youth can be agents of social unrest, crime, and violent extremism.

Demographic dividend or threat? Turning Malawi’s youthful population into an asset for socio-economic transformation