By BENNET SIMBEYE  –

in Johannesburg
THE United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has urged Zambia and the Southern African region to invest more in the education sector as the major driver of economic growth.
Meanwhile, President Edgar Lungu has been asked to become a champion of young people and for the demographic dividend programme.
The President has also asked for more scientific methods of gauging dividends in the provision of health and education, as well as creating jobs, particularly among the youth.
UNFPA executive director Babatunde Osotimehin said Africa’s population was mostly made up of young people and that they were an asset that required massive investment in education.
Professor Osotimehin said this during bilateral talks with President Lungu on the sidelines of the ongoing African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Young people are Africa’s greatest assets because they make up 65 per cent of the population. And that asset is what actually can be sustainable but requires a lot of investment in education, health and skills development,” Prof Osotimehin said.
The UNFPA office was working on developing a programme that would help Zambia reach that demographic dividend by training young people and making the right investment.
“If sub-Saharan Africa can do the right thing, we can actually earn US$500 billion per year for 30 years in terms of GDP. I think it is important to contextualise this because all central banks today, in sub-Saharan Africa have $600 million, so what we are saying is that we can actually generate that income yearly for 30
years,” he said.
Prof Osotimehin said this was possible with the required investment, especially in young people and that Japan and South Korea had greatly developed because they invested in their
human resource.
“Japan has no natural resources but succeeded because it invested in education. Jobs will come if we invest in education,” Prof Osotimehin said.
He said as a champion for young people and for the demographic dividend, President Lungu would regularly have to speak about the power of young people and the need for them to be included in issues of development in Africa.
“At the next meeting of AU, you could speak on issues of the demographic dividend as an important subject matter to be included in the agenda so that Africa at the highest level can take a position,” he said.
He said UNFPA was scaling up maternal health programmes, especially in family planning to ensure women’s health issues were enhanced.
President Lungu urged the UN agency to assist in formulating scientific methods of measuring dividends.
He said while from political platforms leaders could claim the provision of quality of life among youths and getting dividends out of education, health for the youth was getting better but that a scientific way of determining this was better.
Mr Lungu said maternal mortality was easy to determine by comparing current and previous figures.
“Now the dividends that we are getting out of education, health for our youths, should have a more scientific way of us getting confidence that we are getting there. Currently it is a political evaluation but we need a scientific evaluation that will help us move away from rhetoric,” he said.
The Preasident said Zambia was grateful for UNFPA’s support and shared a common agenda for the best interest of women and young people.