Policy Briefs

Zambia‘s Vision 2030 seeks to turn the country into a prosperous industrial middle-income nation that provides opportunities for improving the well-being of all its citizens. The country has experienced steady economic growth in the past decade, averaging at 6.7 %, and graduated into lower-middle-income status in 2012, with a per capita GDP of $1,839 in 2013.

Zambia’s fertility has declined slowly in the context of steady decline in child mortality over the past three decades. Consequently, 45% of the population is under 15 years of age, which has resulted in a high child dependency burden.

Uganda’s young age structure can be turned into a valuable asset for achieving the socio-economic transformation envisaged in Vision 2040 if birth rates decline rapidly. This will create a population with more working-age people than children, which can accelerate economic growth if accompanied by investments in education, health, economic reforms to create quality jobs, and accountability in service delivery and use of public resources.

This Policy Brief provides an overview of the findings of a situational analysis conducted in July 2014, on health and HIV/AIDS to support the development of a regional strategy for integrated health and HIV programming along the East Africa Community (EAC) region transport corridors. It highlights existing gaps in and opportunities for improving service delivery along the EAC transport corridors with a specific focus on migrant and mobile populations.

A few countries in the East and Southern Africa regions are making good progress in improving contraceptive use. Ethiopia, Malawi and Rwanda have exhibited a new wave of optimism and made good progress in addressing barriers of access to modern contraception over the past decade or so. So what can we learn from these countries?

Over the past decade, countries throughout Africa have experienced sustained economic growth. Despite this growth, almost two of every three people— or 660 million—are still living on less than $2 per day. Accelerated economic growth is needed to reduce inequality and poverty, and improve people’s lives across Africa. The experience of many countries in Asia and Latin America suggests a pathway to this accelerated economic growth. An economic window of opportunity opened in these countries as a result of a rapid decline in fertility, which increased the proportion of working-age people relative to dependent children.

Malawi is one of the 15 countries categorized as a population and climate change “hotspot” because of its rapidly growing population, water scarcity and falling food production. Malawi’s population has grown from 6 million in 1966 to about 15 million now and the United Nations Population Division projects that it could more than triple to 50 million by 2050, and reach 129 million by 2100. AFIDEP and Population Action International (PAI) conducted a study to assess the landscape for integrating population and climate change in Malawian development policies and strategies.

Like many other African countries, Kenya is faced with a rapidly growing population and low resilience to climate change. Its current population of about 41 million people is projected to grow to 97 million by 2050, and reach 160million by 2100. AFIDEP and Population Action International (PAI) conducted a study to assess the landscape for integrating population and climate change in Kenyan development policies and strategies.

Despite the strong links between population and climate change, and their role in sustainable development, these issues are not a priority in broader development policies and strategies. Unfortunately, population, climate change and development are often addressed separately at policy and program levels. We conducted assessments in Kenya and Malawi, complemented by in-depth interviews, and found that policymakers recognize the importance of population issues for climate change and development.

This policy brief summarizes recently published evidence on the development benefits of Family Planning (FP) that could be used to advocate for stronger political commitment and financial investments for FP programmes in the region. The evidence is mostly drawn from the Lancet’s July 2012 special issue on FP, the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA’s 2012 Adding it Up report, and recent research conducted by AFIDEP.

The paper on which this brief is based used data of trends in readiness, willingness, ability, and contraceptive use in Africa from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHSs), which provide highly standardized and nationally representative information about contraception and health. Specifically, the paper tracked trends in 24 sub-Saharan African countries that had conducted two or more DHSs – 13 countries from western Africa and 11 countries from eastern Africa.