Major Milestones in Operationalizing Demographic Dividend: A Case Study of Kenya

Jane Wanjaria, Demographer

Dividend: A Case Study for Kenya Demographic Dividend (DD) potential is a temporary window of opportunity for a country to achieve accelerated economic growth as a result of strategic investments in education, health, governance and economic policies. It alters the age structure of a population where more people move in the working age population while supporting fewer dependants as a result of falling number of children per woman. Kenya has achieved major milestones in operationalizing the DD through developing of a DemDiv Model for Kenya which produced four scenarios, gathering data to respond to the model, packaging the data for policy makers buy-in; domesticating the African Union DD roadmap; identifying county specific opportunities for DD and engaging the policy makers and media. However, there are some challenges that have also been encountered in this process which have also been opportunities for learning.