Wanjohi Kabukuru
For many years, the UN population agency, the United Nations Population Fund, struggled to understand the paradox behind the Sahel’s and equatorial Africa’s fastest rising population with little success.
As of 2016 the region’s population, had bulged to 414 million people straddling across more than 20 countries.
Statistics from the World Bank, which has been involved in supporting demographic interventions in the Sahel, indicates that the combined population of the 23 countries in the Sahel and Equatorial Africa will reach one billion by 2050.
Having the highest fertility rate at five children per woman with an annual population growth of three per cent globally, the region has been classified as having the highest dependency ratio globally, at 87.2% for the age groups Zero to 65.
The population is predominantly young, with almost 60% under the age of 24.
These demographics worried both the UN technocrats and respective governments as they spent long hours trying to device ways and means of addressing this challenge.
Further compounding the UN agencies’ headache, it was clear that demographics were not the only concern as the region has been on the throes of multiple other crises such as political instability, insurgency and major disease outbreaks.
All of which are interconnected. Political instability in the Central African Republic and Mali continues to impact neighbouring countries.
In recent years, the insurrection of Boko Haram and other extremist groups has exacerbated terrorism threatening peace, security and stability affecting approximately 17 million people in the Lake Chad basin, which is shared by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
The surge of Al-Qaeda and its other offshoots in the Islamic Maghreb also poses significant threats of sporadic and fatal attacks as was recently experienced in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire.
The region also remains vulnerable to disease outbreaks such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika virus and Buruli ulcer that further places a heavy burden on the overstretched and fragile health system.
These situations have triggered desperate mass migrations along the Sahel, increased violence, provoked human rights violations, undermined security, destroyed public infrastructure, particularly schools and health facilities and largely contributed to environmental degradation experienced in the region.
A resultant ripple effect of such a fluid situation is that on many occasions it has prompted severe humanitarian challenges such as food insecurity, protection, shelter and an unbearable health crunch.
How to respond to these unnerving scenarios pressured regional governments, bilateral partners and even UNFPA technocrats. Answers and lasting solutions were needed before the situation deteriorated.
Within UNFPA it was no longer business as usual. Behind the scenes, the staff were under intense pressure not just to try to construct adequate and timely yet long-term solutions but also to reengineer the UN agency from within.
The first signal that UNFPA was reorganizing and readying itself to adequately answer emerging challenges was seen in 2013.
Up to 2012, the UN agency’s interaction with the Sahelian region was through direct country-specific offices. In 2013 UNFPA West and Central African Regional Office (WCARO) was created and designated to be headquartered in Dakar, Senegal to coordinate the region as a singular unit and liaise with the headquarters in New York.
This managerial change clustered the region by bringing together some 23 linguistically, culturally and politically varied countries into one unit. The 23 reporting lines consisting of 15 Francophone nations, five Anglophone speakers, three oriented in Lusophone and one Hispanophone were amalgamated and redirected to a new reporting base closer home in Dakar.
The 23 nations are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo–Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and The Gambia.
With the establishment of the regional office, a new business model to ensure easier coordination with the country offices was introduced saving costs and time on the cross-continental communication channels. Operations were streamlined, to support all initiatives by providing technical assistance and continuous capacity development.
Demographic Dividend” Champion sent to the Sahel
Two years after UNFPA-West and Central Africa Regional Office was unveiled, the man who had spearheaded structural transformation and reforms within the UN population agency, Mabingue Ngom, was appointed to head this regional office, and provide solutions for the region before the situation degenerated.
“The Regional Office plays a key role in advocating for the fulfillment of UNFPA’s mandate and values,” Ngom says.
“We have been consolidating our catalytic position in the region by promoting transformational partnerships and forming alliances with international organizations, regional institutions and economic commissions, civil society, faith-based organizations’ and the private sector.”
Ngom joined UNFPA headquarters in 2008 after long stints in senior management positions in government and international agencies, which saw him working in Kenya and Switzerland.
He had previously served as a senior economic adviser with the Senegalese government, International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) and the Global Fund to fight Malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB.
At the UNFPA head office in New York, Ngom had been tasked as director in charge of the programme division.
In his position as director of programs Ngom had simplified UN’s global programming and introduced flexible yet efficient processes during the Ebola crisis.
He had also moved the UN agency to the path of evidence-based programming and performance monitoring alongside change management capacity. This was not coincidental.
Ngom’s experience spanning two decades as an economic planner whose daily routine involved population modelling and resource planning scenarios was now being put to the test.
His previous experience as a senior civil servant in Senegal, insider in the UN system with a background in Sahel convinced UNFPA to send him to the region.
It was a homecoming with a difference for Ngom, 20 years after he had left Dakar.
In January 2015, he departed New York for Senegal to manage the regional office in Dakar, the city that made him a civil servant and molded him as an economist.
It is in the lecture halls of Dakar University, his alma mater where he graduated with a Masters of Arts in Economics and Development Planning before joining the Senegalese government where he served in various ministries as an economic advisor that Ngom was returning to.
Ngom found himself confronted by the rise of cross-border insurgency, overburdened health system, fickle political terrain and a ballooning population teeming with restive youth.
The only difference was that this was his home and he was no stranger.
“Despite these bleak facts, there is one that gives the region great hope, its youthful population,” Ngom says.
“If these young people can be helped to become healthy and educated, while at the same time bringing down the birth rate, we can harness what is known as the Demographic Dividend, where a young workforce with fewer dependents can power the domestic economy.”
When he stepped on Dakar’s Atlantic Ocean’s shoreline, he found that a lot had changed since he last worked here as a civil servant.
“There are many challenges to be faced. Beliefs and attitudes are deeply entrenched and existing education and health systems do not have the capacity to meet the required services,” Ngom explains.
“But such challenges can be overcome by focusing on harnessing the benefits of demographic dividend and realizing sustainable development with strong partnerships, impactful programmes, adequate resources, good communication, high level advocacy and policy dialogue alongside a commitment to common goals.”
The usual formalities of settling down into the new office were shelved as Ngom had to assemble a team to fulfill the UN agency’s mandate in the region.
Strengthening the regional and country offices of the UN agency through capacity building and enhancement was bolstered.
After this, Ngom and his new team sought to build specific national consensus, which would coalesce in the propping up of a regional coalition.
This was done by reaching out to governments, traditional leaders, faith based organizations’, clergy, sister UN agencies, bilateral partners and civil societies dealing with youth, women and children.
In 24 months after his relocation to Dakar, Ngom and his team had already laid the groundwork ready to launch UNFPA’s regional campaign pillar.
This was in 2017.
“In 2017, we had one clear objective – to put our agenda of harnessing the demographic dividend in our region to work,” Ngom says.
“We teamed up with the African Union and its member states as well as with other United Nations agencies, partners, civil society organizations and youth groups to ensure that we all focused on the year’s theme which was investment in our youth.”
Deliberately choosing to see the regional demography as a dividend rather than an obstacle has become the cornerstone of UNFPA’s engagement in the expansive region hosting slightly more than half of Africa’s population.
It has also seen Ngom being christened “Africa’s Demographic Dividend” champion.
UNFPA’s multi-pronged strategy on family planning, safe motherhood and demographic dividend ensured “no one was left behind” as it congregated religious and faith leaders together, rallied the regional youth with the #PutYoungPeopleFirst trending on social media and simultaneously unveiled the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) initiative.
An elaborate information awareness and education strategy targeting social and behavioural attitudes was engineered to cover the entire region.
“The regional and our country offices drove the demographic dividend agenda forward in 2017 by engaging our partners across our area of focus by moving from theories to action. We led the development of a theory of change in response to challenges faced by the Sahel countries,” Ngom says.
“This provided a brief analysis of the multi-dimensional causes of the Sahel crisis and proposed a change model using a cross-sectoral and stratified response to bring about both a medium and a long-term impact.”
Was this campaign rolled out in 23 nations successful? The answer came in from Chad.
It was in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena that the accomplishments of UNFPA two years after Ngom arrived were laid bare in public for the first time.
The Chadian President Idris Deby Itno was addressing some 1200 delegates attending the opening session of the first Regional Symposium under the aegis of “Islam, Demographic Dividend and Family Welfare”.
The Chadian government and the powerful Superior Council had organized the meeting for Islamic Affairs with support coming from UNFPA and the World Bank.
Suddenly Deby veered off his prepared speech and his words remain as an inspiration to UNFPA’s population agenda in the Sahel. “I congratulate UNFPA for having organized this symposium and succeeding in making Muslim religious leaders admit to the importance of the demographic dividend and family planning.”
Deby said: “UNFPA succeeded where the government had difficulty reaching a consensus. I exhort the members of government to work with the Superior Council for Islamic Affairs to implement the recommendations and to transmit the message to the grassroots in all the regions.”
At last, the secret was out. This was not only an open admission by a regional leader, but President Deby’s words were an endorsement acknowledging that the diplomatic savvy deployed by UNFPA in a record two years had achieved a rare historic feat of changing perceptions.
Previously bringing together Imams to discuss “family spacing” was an almost impossible task.
Ngom and his team had not only achieved it in 24 months but had managed to build a solid inter-faith coalition that embraced all religions and engaged all stakeholders in driving the demographic dividend message.
“If you want to change things and more so behavioural change, you must engage people at their level.” Ngom says.
“If we bring about the demographic dividend by improving opportunities for young people, allowing mothers to plan their pregnancies and making childbirth safe for mother and child, the overall effect will make life better for the entire population and we will, indeed, have helped ensure a life of dignity for all.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR|
Wanjohi Kabukuru is an award-winning international environmental investigative journalist, whose specialty covers environment, geo-politics, business, conservation and the Indian Ocean marine development. Over the last 17 years, Kabukuru has written extensively on energy, marine science and environmental conservation. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
