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Friday, 11 July 2014 01:52 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Q: How did the World Population Day event initiate?
A: It is a resolution by the World General Assembly of the UN that every year 11 July must be commemorated to draw attention to population issues and linking those to development, peace and security in the world.
Q: What is the significance of such an event and what message is the UN attempting to highlight with this?
A: Every year there is a theme chosen by the UN Secretary General that symbolises where the world community should put its efforts into. Last year it was on teenage pregnancies. The themes are on diverse issues such as investing on women and so on. This year we have an interesting theme where it is ‘Investing in Young People’.
It is a verily symbolic and timely theme. This is so since we are just one year short for the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is December 2015 and there will be a new agenda for sustainable development.
The world’s population has never been as young as it is now. There never has ever been a generation with adolescents of 1.8 million around the globe. We have nearly half of the world population who are below the age of 25.
It is interesting because Sri Lanka recently hosted the World Youth Conference and investing in young people has never been an urgency due to the demographics that currently prevail. Therefore this year’s importance on being mindful, that as we prepare for the next 15 year to have a sustainable world, we must invest in young people.
Q: Is the local theme different?
A: The selected theme is global and it will be interesting to commemorate it here in Sri Lanka. There are a number of reasons. We are just two months after the World Youth Conference, the Colombo Declaration on Youth which I think is extremely progressive, important, and very well thought through. The second reason is that Sri Lanka has a very interesting demographic transition that is happening at the moment.
Q: Could you elaborate on this transition?
A:The country is going through a normal transition where mortality is falling, fertility is declining, so there are more people living longer, wealthier, and happier.
While fertility has dropped, although there has been a slight increase in the last couple of years, this is the demographic transition that results in a demographic bonus. When combined with solid and sustained economic growth, that is demographic opportunity.
History has shown that in Europe and Latin America and especially in South and South East Asia, countries that have benefitted from this bonus, have invested in young people. The workforce that Sri Lanka has now is also going to be declining because there would be less people on the job market in terms of productive workforce at a young age.
With the demographics changing and the population getting older and living longer, there is a need to make macroeconomic adjustments so you have more investments that are going into social security, pension schemes and so forth. The transition normally lasts about 45 years and Sri Lanka is in the middle. It has about 23 years or so to go.
Economically and demographically it is fascinating because the nation will have to observe what it has achieved so far, what the returns on the investments are going to be like and what needs to be done in the future.
Q: Why is it important to invest in the younger population?
A: A safe and successful passage from adolescence into adulthood is the right of every child. The right can only be fulfilled if families and societies make focused investments and provide opportunities to ensure that adolescents and youth progressively develop the knowledge, skills and resilience needed for a healthy productive and fulfilling life, this is more relevant now to Sri Lanka than ever before.
Young people aged 15-24 years constitute 15.6% of the total population of Sri Lanka. This means that for every 100 person there are nearly 16 young people. The large youth population of working age at present in comparison to the number of dependents gives Sri Lanka a unique opportunity to reap the benefits of a demographic bonus. Therefore to grab the opportunity and for Sri Lanka to move on to the next level of development, the right investments have to be made in young people.
Q: How important is it to involve the younger population in decision making? Is it happening?
A: It’s a yes for both. Involving young persons in decision making is important, it is absolutely critical. And is it happening? I would think so. The fact that Sri Lanka has a very impressive National Youth Services Council structure, National Youth Corps, Federation of Youth Clubs and a multitude of associations that young people from a school age are being a part of the social fabric.
I wouldn’t be able to say to what extent this actually is happening in Sri Lanka, but the mere fact that you have the enabling environment, a positive one, is great.
Q: When it comes to investing in young people, which region does this best? Who can Sri Lanka learn from?
A: It’s the other way around. I would like to say that many countries can learn from Sri Lanka when it comes to investing in young persons. You have to compare what is comparable. I have spent my last years in Africa and that region has always compared itself with countries in Asia that have done very well. I don’t think that is fair for those African countries since they should be compared to good successes within that region itself. The same logic, if you compare Sri Lanka with countries in the region, there is a lot that other countries that are direct neighbours who you can learn from here.
Then there are very successful models such as Thailand, Singapore, and then in the more developed countries, South Korea. Those are countries that have had their own dynamics, but then again the question should not be what Sri Lanka can learn from them, but how can Sri Lanka build on its own model organically given its very specific geographic, political and social dimension that it has, and make good use of the success that it can capitalise on.
Q: Could you point out the success?
A: Success is that it has the best maternal mortality indicators in the entire region. It has the best child mortality indicators. It has the opportunity of having more women currently in its population than men. It is a young, well and extremely educated population. It is also a healthy population where non-communicable diseases are very predominant. So these are all very positive ingredients that when combined the nation will be able to show what is good and what it means to invest in youth, that is in the areas of education and healthcare. That is a success and I think many countries can learn from.
Q: How well is Sri Lanka investing in the youth segment?
A: First of all, free education and free health. It’s absolutely critical and there are not many countries that have a similar social security and welfare system. Now we are showing in our studies this investment has done tremendous good for a generation of people that are now successful entrepreneurs, successful models of a can do spirit coming after a wider difficult history that the country has gone through.
The UN has compiled a portrait of young successful Sri Lankans and we find that they are successful not only because they are personally driven as entrepreneurs, but because they have benefitted from this enabling environment, because there is a cultural social cohesion and a fabric that enables in addition to the economical, political, and other factors. That is what is successful, that is what Sri Lanka has done right so far.
Q: What further actions should SL take with regard to investments in its youth?
A: I think very important are those investments that have been made in education and in health to be continued and strengthened, where particular attention need to be paid to underlying determinants that will sustain the success. It is very important to pay attention to the quality of care, and important to continue to invest in a whole variety of reproductive healthcare issues for young women starting at an early age. Here I am referring to family planning, avoiding teenage pregnancies and having continuous investment in the health workforce. It is important to have skilled labour, skilled midwives, skilled registered nurses that can tact dangers during pregnancies and other instances.
In education, it is important to have a curriculum that is socially embracing the challenges of today’s world. The curriculum has to be open, it has to be in a way that there is proficiency in a foreign language. I am not making a plea for English, but for any foreign language where at an early age they have the ability to converse in a language of the world. I personally think that is lacking amongst young people today.
Imperative is also to build into the curriculum areas such as comprehensive sexuality, maternal health, and others that will lead to the respect of women, avoiding violation and any form of discrimination. All this starts with the curriculum, how people are educated, and how they behave with each other. That is very important, to not only continue but to also address some of the underlying issues that will make the health and education system successful.
While this is happening, it is also important to invest in an ageing population. Meaning attention has to be paid for different kind of illnesses that people get at an older age, to make sure they have the social safety net so they can sustain their lives after retiring from work.
The third most important this is to continue to pay very strict attention to the equality of gender, that women are treated the same way, given the same opportunities, ensure there are not more girls that drop out at secondary school level than boys, and that investment is made massively in employability especially in young girls.
In Sri Lanka there is a strong fact that there is a huge proportion of women who are unskilled or low skilled that immigrate. As much as that is a source of foreign remittances and income, it is important that the country diversifies its economic base. That it invests more in skilled and the competency of women so they can be a competitive workforce. I am not an employment specialist but this whole link between the schooling, end of school diploma and entering the job market is important. Also needed to continue the success is the need for investments in information communication technology which can remediate the lack of mastering English or foreign language.
Q: What are the issues faced when investing in young people?
A: I cannot think of any but the only one that comes to my mind based on experience is what I would call institutional incoherence. For example, you have the national youth policy that is spearheaded by the governmental ministry which takes into account health, education, employment and so forth. At the same time there is the national health policy which also addresses young people and their needs. If these two policies are not linked operationally and institutional, then there will be a dilution of efforts. In the UN when we foster policy information we bring these structures together so they can match, maximise their efforts and optimise their investments. This way implementing policies gets about faster.
In addition to this needed is to have very sound representative data. Facts and figures that tell where the issues are, segregated by sex, age and geographic location so there is a very clear overview on what the dynamics are in terms of preferences so they are linked to the policy and to politics.
Q: What is your message for World Population Day?
A: My message is that Sri Lanka should be proud of the investments it has made and showcase the returns that the investments have yielded.
