Research Reports

Despite severe wealth and resource constraints, Malawi has made significant progress in increasing access to contraception and reducing fertility rates between 1990 and 2015. In this report, we have assessed the costs and benefits of providing women with postpartum counselling services and free access to contraceptives and transportation. Our analysis shows that implementing this program for two years passes a benefit-cost test while implementing the program for ten years will have a BCR of around 37.2 if it succeeds in reducing the population. 

Undernutrition and stunting present a number of challenges for children in Malawi. The long-lasting harmful consequences include diminished mental ability and learning capacity, poor school performance in childhood, reduced earnings and increased risks related to diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Using cost-benefit analysis to determine which interventions provide the strongest impact for additional funds, this report highlights interventions that show promise and represent good uses of funds to tackle the challenge of undernutrition in Malawi. 

This report analyses three interventions that provide HIV and AIDS services to FSWs in Malawi. Malawi has made many notable accomplishments in addressing the burden of HIV and AIDS. While overall HIV incidence has declined considerably, now estimated at 2.28 overall per 1000 population, new infections are not generalized and appear to be concentrated around youth and women (AIDSinfo/UNAIDS).

In this report, we have assessed the costs and benefits of delivering improved emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) and nutritional supplements. Our analysis shows that many of these interventions have benefit-cost ratios (BCRs) of greater than 15 and could be very good uses of resources to improve maternal and neonatal health in Malawi.

This report summarises results of a study carried out to assess the potential Demographic Dividend that Angola can earn under different policy scenarios and to determine the policy actions that the country can invest in to optimise its chances of harnessing the Demographic Dividend.

The demographic dividend refers to the temporary economic benefit that a country can earn from a significant increase in the ratio of working-age adults relative to young dependents that is created by rapid decline in birth rates. The full potential of the demographic dividend can be realised if the fertility declines and change in the age structure is accompanied by sustained investments in education and skills development, health, job creation and good governance.

The East African Regional Analysis of Youth Demographics study examined youth population dynamics, policies and other economic and natural challenges in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and the impact they can have on the socioeconomic transformation of a country. The compilation and production of this research uptake report is a culmination of various research communication and engagement forums attended by a cross-section of stakeholders in the field of development from the East African Community (EAC) and beyond.

The primary objective of this study was to assess Namibia’s prospects for harnessing the demographic dividend and to identify priority options for maximising the dividend. Demographic change has implications for the realisation of these ambitions. This report, therefore, outlines the key policy recommendations on how Namibia can harness the potential of her youthful population to achieve socio-economic development.

The Evidence-Informed Policy-Making (EIPM) field seeks to inculcate a culture of evidence use in decision-making to ensure the right investments are made towards development policies and practice. This report explores the EIPM landscape with the aim of understanding the barriers of evidence use in policy-making and the ways of measuring EIPM impact.

The demographics of the East African Community (EAC), particularly those of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, mirror those of Africa – decades of very high fertility in Africa, coupled with rapidly declining child mortality have created a population age-structure dominated by young people under the age of 25.

Botswana’s socio-economic development aspirations as spelt out in Vision 2036, its current long-term development strategy, is to graduate from being an upper-middle-income country (UMIC) to a high-income country (HIC) with prosperity for all. Demographic change has implications for the realisation of these ambitions.

The Network of African Parliamentary Committees of Health (NEAPACOH), previously known as the Southern and Eastern Africa Parliamentary Alliance of Committees on Health (SEAPACOH)) is one of the active networks engaging members of parliament (MPs) in Africa to strengthen the delivery of their functions of oversight, legislation, and representation, in tackling health challenges in the region.

This report summarises the results of a study carried out to assess the potential Demographic Dividend (DD) that Rwanda can earn under different policy scenarios, and also to determine the policy actions that the country can invest in to optimise its chances of harnessing the DD. The Demographic Dividend (DD) refers to the temporary economic benefit that a country can earn from a significant increase in the ratio of working-age adults relative to young dependents that is created by rapid decline in birth rates.