• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Friday Podcasts

    Jagdish Upadhyay: Don’t Wait for the Demographic Dividend, Seize It

    February 5, 2016 By Sean Peoples

    jagdish-small“The demographic dividend is about inclusive growth, not just economic growth,” says Jagdish Upadhyay, chief of commodity security at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in this week’s podcast. “If it’s not inclusive, achieving the demographic dividend will be difficult.”

    “The demographic dividend is about inclusive growth, not just economic growth,” says Jagdish Upadhyay, chief of commodity security at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in this week’s podcast. “If it’s not inclusive, achieving the demographic dividend will be difficult.”

    Upadhyay argues that countries wanting to seize the economic potential of having a disproportionate number of workers compared to dependents need to understand that it won’t happen unless young people are better prepared and engaged. “We see that about 60 countries are waiting for the demographic dividend,” Upadhyay says. “And if you don’t talk about empowerment of young people, and that kind of inclusive development, then we will miss this generation that we are working on.”

    Upadhyay makes the case that high quality, comprehensive, and gender-disaggregated data is necessary to connect access to family planning and increased empowerment to sustainable and economic growth. By illustrating the impacts of demographic change, Upadhyay says it easier to show economic and finance ministries how “you are losing your economic growth if you don’t do these things.” He cites USAID’s estimate that maternal and newborn mortality leads to $15 billion in lost in potential productivity globally every year as an example.

    The “economy will not be successful,” says Upadhyay, “if we cannot empower young people, if they cannot plan their pregnancy, if they cannot complete their education.”

    Jagdish Upadhyay spoke at the Wilson Center on December 8.

    Friday Podcasts are also available for download on iTunes.

    Topics: Africa, Asia, demography, development, economics, family planning, Friday Podcasts, gender, global health, livelihoods, maternal health, podcast, population, poverty, SDGs, UNFPA, USAID, youth

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • 49890944808_c7d6dfef74_c Why Feminism Is Good for Your Health
    Melinda Cadwallader: "Feminism materializes through investment in human capital and caregiving sectors of the economy...
  • 49890944808_c7d6dfef74_c Why Feminism Is Good for Your Health
    Melinda Cadwallader: People who refuse to acknowledge patriarchy are often the ones who benefit from it. So please, say...
  • Water desalination pipes A Tale of Two Coastlines: Desalination in China and California
    Dr S Sundaramoorthy: It is all fine as theory. What about the energy cost? Arabian Gulf has the money from its own oil....
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000