Window on Africa

Many questions have been raised about whether the world can cope with so many people and what impact the growing population will have on our planet.

The UN estimates that an average of 78 million people will be added to our population every year.  Almost all of them  - 97 of every 100 - will be born in less developed countries, and many of those countries are on the African continent.

Africa has one of the highest fertility rates in the world. It’s estimated that women in southern Africa will bear 6 children in their lifetime.

With fears about the world’s food security, health and poverty rates, it’s very easy to dwell on the negative consequences of such numbers.

The UN says high fertility is related to poor development outcomes. High-fertility countries tend to have lower per capita incomes, higher levels of poverty, lower educational attainment, higher mortality and lower urbanisation.

Education, many agree, is the key to improvement in a lot of these countries. Numerous studies have shown and continue to show how communities benefit when women and girls’ are educated and empowered.

According to a UN report on 24 high-fertility African countries, women aged 15 to 19 with no education had a birth rate four times higher than women who had at least a secondary education.

On the other hand, there have been considerable gains in the number of women and girls being educated.

The World Bank says that compared with two decades ago, more young people are completing primary school and increasingly going on to secondary and tertiary education in  low-income countries.

Enrollment rates in primary education have surged upwards of 80 percent, and completion rates are now above 60 percent.

So there is movement on the education front.

Then there is gender inequality to deal with.

Women in many of these countries are not decision makers and are not in a position to choose what they’d want for their future.

In Mozambique for example, the UNFPA says the low status of women and other forces that limit women’s economic and social opportunities are partly responsible for high birth rates.

A recent Human Development Index report by the UNDP found that 10 countries at the bottom of the list are all in sub-Saharan Africa: Guinea, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Chad, Mozambique, Burundi, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Forced and early marriage is also a contributor.

A study by Mozambique’s National Statistics Institute found more than half of women aged 20 to 49 said there were married before the age of 18, and about one in five said they married before age 15.

But there is good news, too.

The global poverty rate has been going down.

In developing countries, the number of people living below the World Bank’s $1.25-a-day poverty line fell from 50 per cent in 1981 to 25 percent in 2005.

The world is paying attention to Africa.

The rate of return on foreign investment there is greater than in any other developing region. The IMF predicts the continent's economy will grow by 6 per cent next year.

The African story is changing, despite the challenges. And a growing population is not necessarily a bad thing.