Countries that achieve sustainable fertility rates are positioned to reap the benefits of a “demographic dividend.” Southern Voices Network Scholar Eunice Mueni Williams explains the goal and how it relates to economic development in this edition of Wilson Center NOW.
Guest
Eunice Mueni Williams is a Knowledge Translation Officer at the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. Prior to this, Eunice worked for the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust (KEMRI-WT) Research Initiative where she was part of the team that synthesised evidence which informed the revision of the Ministry of Health’s guidelines for neonatal and child care. Her research interests include understanding the fertility dynamics in African countries and how it relates to economic development, youth and their contribution to development, and reproductive health in general. Eunice has extensive experience in appraising quality of evidence of primary research studies, which she has applied in several systematic reviews she has conducted. She also has a wealth of experience in fieldwork and policy analysis on maternal and child health, family planning and population dynamics. She is part of the team at AFIDEP that is working with multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa to conduct studies to estimate the potential of harnessing the demographic dividend in these countries, and to develop policy options that can help countries reach their targets. So far, these studies have been conducted in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi, and Senegal.
Host
John Milewski is the executive producer and managing editor of Wilson Center NOW and also serves as director of Wilson Center ON DEMAND digital programming. Previously he served as host and producer of Dialogue at the Wilson Center and Close Up on C-SPAN. He also teaches a course on politics and media for Penn State’s Washington Programme.
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