Kenya Demographic Dividend Roadmap June 2017

In recent years, the demographic dividend, which is defined as the temporary opportunity to achieve rapid socio-economic development occasioned by a decline in fertility levels and strategic investments in key sectors, has been fronted as a solution to the myriad of problems being experienced by developing countries. This is drawn from the experience of the “Asian Tigers” and the newly industrialized countries in Asia that have successfully achieved high levels of income and a much better quality of life for its citizens. In response to these experiences, the African Union has recognized the harnessing of the demographic dividend as an opportunity for African countries to address its development challenges which include high unemployment levels, high incidence of poverty, forced migration by inhabitants of the continent in search for better opportunities abroad, low education levels, high mortality and morbidity incidences, and criminal activities among the youth. The African Union Agenda 2063 seeks to position the continent towards realizing the “Africa We Want”. It envisages a continent that is globally competitive and its inhabitants enjoying a high quality of life. In January 2014, the African Union called on the African countries to recognize the demographic dividend in their respective development efforts. This was  followed by the African Union adopting a common position on the Post 2015 Development Agenda that eventually resulted in the inclusion demographic dividend in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Further to this, the African Union came up with the theme “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through investments in Youth” for the year 2017. The objectives of this theme are two fold, first to help in expediting the implementation of demographic dividend initiatives in Africa, and second to develop a roadmap with key deliverables and milestones to guide Member States on concrete actions to be undertaken in 2017 and beyond. In preparation for 2017, the African Union developed a demographic dividend roadmap that member states are expected to domesticate.

This Kenyan demographic dividend roadmap is a domestication of the African Union roadmap whose aims and objectives tie in well with Kenya’s Vision 2030 development blue print that aspires to achieve higher incomes and a better quality of life for all its citizens. The African Union roadmap also harmonizes with the goal of Kenya’s Population Policy for National Development (PPND) which seeks to match the population growth with the available resources. The complementarity of the African Union roadmap to Kenya’s development agenda inspired the development of this roadmap.