[afro-nets] Demographic Bonus and Investment in Youth

[Ahmed Saleem <asaleem@pcpak.org>]

Demographic Bonus and Investment in Youth
-----------------------------------------
 
Dear Colleagues,
 
Please find enclosed my latest article published in opinion-
editorial section of daily "The News":
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2004-daily/31-05-2004/oped/opinion.htm
 
on "Demographic Bonus and Investment in Youth".
 
Ahmed Saleem
mailto:asaleem@pcpak.org
 
 
--
Demographic Bonus and Investment in Youth
 
by Ahmed Saleem
 
Investing in the younger generation is important for a host of 
reasons namely ethical, human rights, and gender and economic, 
and it should be a top priority of any government. The support 
for adolescents and youth is one of the most cost-effective 
strategic interventions to attain overall development goals of 
any country including Pakistan. Support for young people is also 
critical for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals 
(MDGs). The lives of young people will vastly improve as targets 
related to poverty and hunger eradication, education, gender 
equality, child and maternal mortality; health, and environ-
mental sustainability are met. Moreover, given appropriate sup-
port and opportunities, young people can become a powerful force 
for achievement and for sustained progress.
 
According to the 1998 Census Report of Pakistan children, the 
very young and the youth accounted for 62 million of the total 
population. This demographic surge of young people offers a one-
time window of opportunity. For a large group of countries, 
where fertility has declined sharply in the last two decades, 
the proportion of the population of working age (15 to 60) will 
increase relative to younger and older dependent populations 
over the next few decades. With appropriate investments, poli-
cies and governance, countries can take advantage of this low 
dependency ratio, or demographic 'bonus', to launch economic, 
social, cultural and structural transformation. Luckily, this 
window of opportunity is going to open for Pakistan very soon.
 
The question here is: how does Pakistan take advantage of this 
opportunity. This depends on whether the young people entering 
the workforce are literate and educated, healthy, as well as 
skilled. Moreover, proper economic and social policies should be 
available to equip and employ their growing numbers in produc-
tive ventures. Failing to invest adequately in the full poten-
tial of young will mean losing this potential demographic oppor-
tunity. Ignoring the needs of young people carries important 
risks, not only for their lives, but also for national and 
global stability, security and socio-economic development.
 
Action to address the critical challenges facing adolescents and 
young people in Pakistan is an urgent priority, if social and 
economic development efforts are to succeed in alleviating pov-
erty, improving health services, rapid population growth, and 
empowering women and men to create a more equitable world. In-
vesting in programmes to meet adolescents' education, health and 
reproductive health needs, and to help them build skills, is es-
sential to meeting these challenges. For this we need to set an 
updated Youth Policy in Pakistan. An advocacy-based policy can 
create a supportive environment for the support of our youth.
 
For the betterment of the youth, political leadership can also 
play a key role. Political commitment - at the highest levels, 
matched with resources and sustained over time - is crucial for 
the success of programmes addressing the needs of the young peo-
ple in Pakistan. Fortunately, the political leadership in Paki-
stan is well aware of the problem and commitment to the enhance-
ment of this cause. Concerted and collaborative efforts from the 
civil society, NGOs, intelligentsia, and the government all help 
in elevating this cause.
 
Adolescents have been traditionally ignored by the public sector 
programmes and budgets, which tend to focus on children (under 
10) and then on adults. Investing in adolescents is a unique op-
portunity to ensure that the earlier investments made in child-
hood come to fruition for the benefit of national development. 
Otherwise, accomplishments in improved child educational and 
health status may be undermined.
 
Investing in adolescents and youth can yield wide-ranging divi-
dends. Investments in health and education are among the most 
cost-effective development expenditures in terms of the social 
and private returns they generate. For a majority of young peo-
ple, economic life begins in the adolescent years - for those 
who can get jobs. But unemployment is high for this group. En-
hancing the skills base and employability - especially of the 
poorest groups - can translate into better jobs.
 
The involvement of adolescents in social development is a task 
most countries, including Pakistan, have yet to address. Broad 
social changes are increasing the gap between physical maturity 
and acceptance into adult social roles. Social institutions must 
adjust to offer adolescents full participation because in many 
settings they have proven to be dynamic agents of change.
 
The years of adolescence can be neither denied nor seen as "a 
time between". The choices young people make, the goals they set 
and the opportunities they are offered are not just preparatory: 
they are a meaningful and important part of their lives. Young 
people's choices can set them on courses that can benefit or 
harm, themselves but their families, friends and communities. 
Yet, adolescents are offered inadequate information, opportuni-
ties, resources and support necessary to guide their choices.
 
The largest generation of adolescents in history - 1.2 billion 
strong - is preparing to enter adulthood in a rapidly changing 
world. Their educational and health status, their readiness to 
take on adult roles and responsibilities, and the support they 
receive from their families, communities and governments will 
determine their own future and the future of their countries. 
Today's adolescents and young people have diverse experiences 
given the different political, economic, social and cultural re-
alities they face in their communities. Yet, there is a common 
thread running through all of their lives and that is the hope 
for a better future. The fact that we must keep in mind that 
there future is in fact the future of Pakistan.
 
In Pakistan, there is a need for positive dialogue and greater 
understanding among parents, families, communities and govern-
ments about the complex and sensitive situations facing adoles-
cents and young people. These complex and sensitive situations 
are changing family structures and living conditions, in rapidly 
changing resulting norms and social behaviours one can also see 
the growth in street children, The impact of urbanisation and 
migration, and the lack of education, and employment.
 
Adolescence is a growth process. Guiding children as they step 
into adulthood is not, and never has been, a job for parents 
alone. In traditional rural communities in Pakistan, the ex-
tended family and established systems of hierarchy and respect 
govern the transition. But unfortunately, with the passage of 
time, the certainties of rural tradition are giving way to urban 
life, with its opportunities and risks, its individual freedoms 
and its complex social demands and frameworks of support.
 
In the rapidly changing urban environment, young people derive 
most of their information about the world, what to expect and 
how to behave, from their peers, and increasingly from mass me-
dia. The tension between parents, who tend to see them as chil-
dren in need of protection, and the outside world, which makes 
demands on them as adults, reflects the central dilemma of mod-
ern adolescents.
 
While there is little comparative research, we know far less in 
a systematic way about adolescents, than about other age groups 
and even less about early adolescence, from 10 to 14, than about 
the later years, 15-19. If we want to help our youth and, conse-
quently see Pakistan flourishing, there is need to improve in-
formation about the strongest influences on their lives, their 
peers, their families, and their communities. If policy makers, 
communities and families create policies, programmes and guid-
ance keeping in view the above factor Pakistan will surely reap 
maximum advantage of this demographic bonus and intelligent in-
vestment on the youth.
 
The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist with a de-
velopment communication background.
Email: eepost@yahoo.com
 
 
--
Ahmed Saleem
Population Council (Pakistan Office)
House No. 7, Street 62
F-6/3, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-2277439 Ext: 114
Cell: +92-300-9553355
Fax: +92-51-2821401
mailto:asaleem@pcpak.org