If countries with high fertility rates like Uganda are to benefit from the demographic dividend like the Asian tiger countries then the governments must invest in girls and young women and provide realistic family planning for them.
This is the agreement of family planning and reproductive health experts at a panel discussion on how to enable Africa’s highest fertility countries to develop at the International Conference on Family Planning ongoing in Dakar, Senegal.
Dr Mario Mandara, of Ahmadu Bello University in northern Nigeria, said African governments must improve the reproductive health of girls and young women by
keeping them in school as well as providing them with life skills.
Dr Mandara also stated that girl’s education is perhaps the most powerful tool in reproductive health and development because it empowers them by shifting their ambition from early marriage and child bearing to a more positive and productive outlook to life.