The African Statistical Journal, Volume 8

Abstract

Measurement of progress on the development agenda is nowadays of major interest to governments and the international community. Most of the explanations so far given on Africa’s progress on the development agenda revolve around economic development, especially economic growth. The social development, and particularly the evolving demographic and population changes, receives less attention in explaining Africa’s progress, and in the strategies to accelerate its development in the future. This paper explains how demography is important for measuring, assessing, explaining, and identifying policies to accelerate Africa’s progress on the development agenda. At the forefront, there is need to address high fertility and to improve women’s education, so as to make rapid progress on infant, child and maternal mortality, and to enhance gender equality and women status. Moreover, governments and the international community need to recognize the rapidly changing population distribution, and the challenges and opportunities it presents for development in Africa. Particularly, rapid shift of people from rural to urban areas across the continent necessitates new strategies for rural and urban development.