Webinar Series: Demography and COVID-19 in Africa - Evidence and Policy Responses to Safeguard the Demographic Dividend
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COVID-19 and DemographyPopulation dynamics are important to any development strategy that a country seeks to implement. To this end, many countries observe their population structure and trends in order to inform holistic and multi-sectoral approaches to sustainable development. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are youthful, and this is reflected in their age structure profiles. As a result, they have huge potential to catalyse a meaningful demographic dividend from having a large proportion of potentially available persons devoted to production and socio-economic development, provided the required social and economic investments have been made to realise their full potential. Such a scenario would boost their efforts to achieve a wide range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). RSA and African countries have to invest and implement relevant policy actions in the areas of health, education and the economy in order to capture and maximise their potential demographic dividend.The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has caused major social and economic upheavals that presents an indispensable need for demographers and policymakers to consider how the pandemic interacts with population dynamics, its implications for the demographic dividend, and how the post- COVID-19 recovery plans can be informed and sustained by evidence on population dynamics. The situation also provides an excellent learning opportunity to similar situations that may arise in the future particularly focused on the response of individual countries and regions and how they have relied on evidence or overcome challenges from evidence gaps in their responses.ObjectiveBuilding on South Africa’s data analysis and understanding of the epidemic and lessons from the rest of Africa and other world regions, the webinar series seeks to create a space for sharing a demographic perspective on the impacts of COVID-19 with partners on the continent, considering its implications for Africa to reach a demographic dividend and achieve the SDGs.The Webinar SeriesUnder the leadership of South Africa’s Department of Social Development and Statistics South Africa, we are pleased to host a webinar series in October and November 2020, titled Demography and COVID-19 in South Africa – Evidence and Policy Responses to Safeguard the Demographic Dividend. The series will take on the form of 5 webinars to explore the following topics:
- The demographic impact of COVID-19: global, regional and national experiences
- What does demographic data tell us about the population-wide impacts of COVID-19?
- Comparisons between SA and UK and implications for the African continent.
- An exploration of evidence-based service delivery in the times of COVID-19
- South Africa’s Social and Economic Programmes to Harness the Demographic Dividend
- The impact of COVID-19 on the African continent’s prospects of harnessing the Demographic Dividend
- Wrap up session focused on policy recommendations and potential avenues to explore in South-South/Trilateral Cooperation on Demography and COVID-19
Core questions to be explored
- How do demographic age structures and indicators influence the way COVID-19 spreads in and affects a population?
- What has been learnt about data, indicators and the measurement thereof to monitor and evaluate the impact of COVID-19 and to inform governments’ responses?
- What are the possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on progress towards a positive and inclusive demographic dividend in South Africa and the rest of Africa?
- What lessons can we learn from Africa’s response to COVID-19?
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The webinar series will generate a level of consensus on core trends and findings among experts to formulate a set of policy options to recommend to the national government as well as regional institutions.Watch webinar 1: The Demographic Impact of COVD-19: Global, Regional and National ExperiencesWatch webinar 2: An Exploration of Evidence-based Service Delivery in the Times of COVID-19Watch webinar 3: South Africa’s Social and Economic Programmes to Harness the Demographic DividendWatch webinar 4: The Impact of COVID-19 on the African Continent’s Prospects of Harnessing a Demographic DividendWatch webinar 5: Series Synthesis and Policy Options Recommendations (Webinar 5)
South Africa’s Department of Social Development and Stats SA, the British High Commission to South Africa and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UNFPA, the African Union (AU) and Africa CDC, the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS) and PASA.