Demographic Dividend and the Power of Youth

As fertility rates decrease, 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 rapid economic growth if the right social and economic investments and policies are made in health, education, governance and the economy. Conversely, research shows that resource requirements to support a large population of children and youth can depress the pace of economic growth and prevent needed investments in human capital. The discourse on responding to this population growth frequently excludes the youth. The result can be an apathetic community of young people who withdraw from participation in political and democratic processes.

The book is a compilation of articles that address the issue and highlight solutions from different parts of the world, from members of the Global Diplomacy Lab to external contributors: how they see their work promoting, enhancing and contributing to harvesting the demographic dividend.

Eirliani A Rahman is an executive director of YAKIN (Youth, Adult survivors & Kin In Need) and works for Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on issues of child sex trafficking and child labour. She is the author of Survivors, Breaking the Silence on Child Sexual Abuse (2017) and won the 2015 BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Award.

ElsaMarie D’Silva is founder and CEO of Red Dot Foundation (India) and president of Red Dot Foundation Global (USA). Its platform, Safecity, crowdsources personal experiences of sexual violence and abuse in public spaces. 

Sonja Peteranderl is the Latin America correspondent for Der Spiegel in Tijuana, Mexico, and is the founder of BuzzingCities Lab, a think tank focusing on how digitalisation influences security, organised crime and urban violence in megacities.