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There is no doubt: Africa will dominate global population dynamics in the 21st century. While public attention is still focused on Asia as a fast-growing and prospering market with currently 4.5 billion inhabitants, today's one billion sub-Saharan Africans have significantly outpaced Asia in terms of population growth. The new book Africa's Population: In Search of a Demographic Dividend, edited by Hans Groth and John F. May, analyses how Africa can accelerate its economic growth by benefitting from its changing population structure.
According to the official forecast of the 2015 United Nations Populations Projections, in 2100, 39 per cent of the world's population could live in sub-Saharan Africa. How can the continent benefit from this development? A key issue today is the formulation of policies that would help Africa to replicate the conditions that have enabled East Asian countries to prosper and capture a 'demographic dividend' during the period covering the early 1960s to the 1990s. The DD is defined as an accelerated economic growth triggered by the decline in a country's birth and death rates and the relative increase in working-age adults.
In order to open this demographic window of opportunity, there are key objectives that have to be achieved: According to the editors, Africa urgently need jobs as well as continued health investment and improvement if we want to avoid human suffering and social disruptions in both Africa and the global community.
Africa's Population: In Search of a Demographic Dividend includes contributions from renowned African and international scholars. It is meant for leaders, scholars, policy makers and business planners and serve as a reference work for current political discussions.
Dr. Hans Groth is the Chairman of the Board of the World Demographic & Ageing Forum (WDA Forum). Dr. John F. May is a Visiting Scholar at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) in Washington, D.C. and teaches demography at Georgetown University.
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Hans Groth, John F. May
Africa's Population: In Search of a Demographic Dividend
2017, 551 p. 93 illus. 6 illus. in colour
Hardcover 124.99 € | £93.00 | $139.00
ISBN 978-3-319-46887-7
Also available as an eBook