Policies Needed to Capture a Demographic Dividend in Sub-Saharan Africa

In recent years, discussions on how to capture a demographic dividend (DD) have come to dominate the debate on international development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The model is that of the East-Asian countries that benefitted from a DD at the end of the twentieth century. Nowadays, the goal is to replicate a similar process in SSA. For this to happen, however, SSA countries will need to implement a number of policies, which we classify into policies fulfilling necessary conditions and policies fulfilling sufficient conditions required to capture a DD. These necessary and sufficient conditions aim at improving the demographic dependency ratio (DDR) but also, as importantly, the employment dependency ratio (EDR) and the socioeconomic dependency ratio (SDR), each ratio being more stringent than the previous ratio. In addition to the formulation and implementation of adequate policies in the area of population, education, health, and gender equity, SSA countries will need to design and implement sound economic policies and improve good governance. To achieve this tall order, it will be crucial to adopt an “integrated approach” in order to foster socioeconomic development across all sectors and muster the full commitment of both the African leadership and the donors’ community.