SPEECH BY PROF. NJUGUNA NDUNG’U, EGH CABINET SECRETARY, THE NATIONAL TREASURY AND ECONOMIC PLANNING DURING THE LAUNCH OF THE KENYA NATIONAL POPULATION POLICY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT SAFARI PARK HOTEL, NAIROBI ON 6TH JUNE 2024
Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs H. E. Hon. Dr Musalia Mudavadi
Principal Secretaries present
NCPD Board and Management
Representatives of Development Partners
Private Sector and Non-State Actors
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
1. I am pleased to join you at this launch of the Kenya National Population Policy for Sustainable Development and to address this gathering of distinguished guests. let me apologise for H.E Prime CS who was supposed to be us but he is tied with official duties.
2. Population issues are central to economic development and rapid population growth if not matched by growth in the economy can be an impediment to realisation of national development aspirations. That is, if population grows faster than real growth of the economy.
3. Population growth has its own dynamics, the changing population size and age structure through changes in mortality, fertility, and migration. These three fundamental factors are, in turn, closely tied to the development discourse.
4. Rapid population change if not addressed or matched with income growth can magnify development challenges. A young population requires adequate human capital development facilitation to cater for diverse demands.
Ladies and gentlemen,
5. Policy options as envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, Africa Agenda 2063, Kenya Vision 2030 and its Fourth Medium Term Plan (2023-2027) and the current BETA policy set up considers the challenges associated with the population dynamics. This is because actions will be crucial in shaping future population trends as well as take advantage of resultant outcomes.
6. The government of Kenya has over the years implemented various population policies and programmes that have resulted in measured progress especially targeted on reduction of rapid population growth.
7. The Census results show that population growth was 2.9 per cent per annum between 1999 and 2009 to 2.2 percent per annum between 2009 and 2019. At this population growth rate, Kenya’s population is projected to reach 57.8 million by the year 2030. It is important to compare regions in Kenya as well but more importantly, the implication of this structure of population by 2030 as well as the structure and required development facilities for that population
Ladies and gentlemen,
8. The first perspective is a youthful population in Kenya. A demographic perspective, a youthful age structure ensures that the population will continue to grow even if average fertility drops to the “replacement level”, at which each generation bears the exact number of children needed to replace itself.
9. Youth (18-34 years) in Kenya constitute about 29 percent of the total population. The population of the youth grew from 3.2m in 1989 to 13.2m in 2019 and is projected to increase to 19m by 2035. This youth bulge presents the country with great economic and social opportunities, but also enormous challenges.
10. A youthful population presents an opportunity for accelerated economic growth as the increased share of population in the working ages can support an accelerated rise in income per capita, a phenomenon referred to as the “demographic dividend”.
11. Harnessing the demographic dividend requires important dimensions of preparedness in development planning and nation-building. Four key interconnected pillars are most critical: a) health and wellbeing; b) education and skills development; c) work, employment and entrepreneurship and d) Quality of institutions. However, Kenya like many developing countries that are ready demographically to benefit from the dividend lags in these critical investments. The failure of institutions is glaring. (Read Africa Lion 2016: Growth Traps and opportunities for six African Economies)
12. Against a background of moderate economic growth, and slow investments in the critical functions to take advantage of the youth bulge this segment of the population has continued to grow rapidly, outpacing the supply of social services and economic opportunities, and putting a huge strain on available resources.
13. Other population challenges include environmental damage, climate change, rapid and unplanned urbanization whose negative attributes are seen in the mushrooming of slums and informal settlements. The informal settlements provide unfavorable living conditions and are inadequately served with infrastructure and utilities such as water, electricity, and sanitation among others.
14. The strategies for human capital development, resource mobilization, market development and digitalization as outlined in the Fourth Medium Term Plan, anchored on the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda, presents a perfect opportunity for the country to reverse the trend and reap from the demographic dividend. The refocus is to stat from Human Capital development to markets and digital evolution space.
Ladies and gentlemen,
15. The Population Policy we are launching today aims to provide a responsive harmonized direction to address these critical population and development challenges in a multi-sectoral manner while ensuring adherence to the ultimate national aspirations through a shared vision of healthy, skilled and a prosperous society.
16. The Policy addresses seven critical issues: i). Population size, growth, and vulnerable population, ii). Fertility; iii). Morbidity and Mortality; iv). Mobility, Migration and Urbanisation; v). Population, Human settlement, Environment, and disasters risks; vi). Data research and innovation; and vii) Resource mobilisation.
17. The Policy aims to maximize investments in people through appropriate quality education, health care, nutrition, job creation and skills development which should lead to improvement of human capital development, a strong pillar in the development discourse. It is particularly anchored in harnessing the potential of changing age distribution. It is important to gain insights into research work in this area from AERC- it has an open access Library. AERCAfrica.org
Ladies and gentlemen,
18. It is thus quite important that the visibility of the National Council for Population and Development is informed by frontier research and policy work in the country. This will allow the National Council for Population and Development anchor the knowledge base to support this important pillar of development.
Ladies and gentlemen
19. Let me reiterate, that a path towards a more sustainable future requires appropriate population planning, that involves anticipating the nature and consequences of major population shifts before and as they occur by adopting forward-looking and proactive planning guided by timely information and analytical content. To achieve this desired objective, there is need to galvanise efforts of all stakeholders.
Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I urge all of us to remain committed to the country’s population programme for sustainable development, but also important the knowledge frontier base to refine policy pathways for better outcomes.
Thank you
