Feb 2, 2010
My guest this week is <a
href="http://www.cgdev.org/content/expert/detail/13109/"
target="_blank">Rachel Nugent</a>, deputy director for
global health here at the Center for Global Development. Rachel
directs the Center's work looking at the links between population,
poverty, and economic growth and serves as the coordinator of the
<a href="http://www.poppovresearchnetwork.org/"
target="_blank">Population and Poverty Research
Network</a>, which <a
href="http://www.cgdev.org/content/general/detail/1423761"
target="_blank">held its fourth annual conference</a>
recently in Cape Town, South Africa.
Many of us are familiar with how development influences population
growth: as incomes rise, fertility rates and average family size
tend to fall; populations grow more slowly. Rachel explains that
while this relationship is important there are many important
unanswered questions about how population policies affect
development outcomes. For example: if a poor country slows
population growth by actively encouraging family planning, will the
families involved and the nation reap economic benefits? Under what
circumstances?
In the Wonkcast, besides discussing these questions we also
consider why population policy has been a radioactive subject for
many developing countries and donors alike.
“To talk about population control is really to get a lot of people
very nervous,” Rachel tells me. “Understandably, there was pushback
from developing countries that they didn’t need to have outsiders
telling them that they should control their populations—and how
many children they should have.”
The <a href="http://www.poppov.org" target="_blank">PopPov
Research Network</a>, Rachel explains, aims to lift the taboo
on population policy discussions by sponsoring rigorous,
highly-credible studies that can inform developing country
policymakers. The network now includes more than 200 researchers
engaged in over 60 projects. Most of the projects are in Africa, a
region with wide variation in population growth rates, including
countries with some of the world’s highest birth rates.
In the closing minutes of our conversation, Rachel describes some
of the research that the PopPov network has helped to fund and
shares one of her favorite presentations from the network's recent
conference in Cape Town. The presentation focuses on the
“demographic dividend” that can accrue to countries when birth
rates and thus the “dependency ratio” (the number of children and
old people per working age adult) fall.
In East Asia, the demographic dividend is credited with helping to
drive very rapid rates of growth. The study found that in Africa,
even in countries where dependency rates are falling, savings rates
are too low to generate the new investments needed to give those
extra workers productive jobs.
Listen to the Wonkcast to hear the interview. Have something to add
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