Essay On Demographic Dividend

The challenges to attaining the benefits of the demographic dividend in South Africa.

Introduction

A demographic dividend is the accelerated economic growth that can result from improved reproductive health, a rapid decline in fertility, and the subsequent shift in population age structure. With fewer births each year, a country’s working-age population grows larger relative to the young dependent population. With more people in the labor force and fewer children to support, a country has a window of opportunity for economic growth if the right social and economic investments and policies are made in health, education, governance, and the economy. For a country to realize demographic dividend it must first undergo demographic transition which

Poor quality of education will have an effect on demographic dividend. In South Africa there is unacceptably high number of poorly trained teachers, insufficient textbooks, and poor infrastructure. There is an inadequate organisational support to teachers and bureaucracy in educational department. South African learners do not have a culture of reading and lack the motivational push to learn from their families and community. Resources are being used on non-efficient manner with little accountability and transparency. A proper education has the potential to increase the employability or income generating capacity of South Africa’s majority poor thereby enabling them to be employed or be entrepreneurs in their own right mitigating high inequality levels in South

Reaping the demographic dividend requires investments in good health including sexual and reproductive health and family planning which could lead to increase per capita income. Teenage pregnancy seems the main problem for South African youth. The prevalence increases with age, most young girls have dropped out of school and blame pregnancy for dropping out of school. Panday et al. (2009) presents an excellent summary of the critical drivers that place teenage girls in South Africa at heightened risk of early pregnancy. Factors include; Young girls dropping out of school early on, often because of economic barriers and poor school performance, Young girls growing up in areas of entrenched