Transitions to adulthood in a high fertility context: The case of sub-Saharan Africa

The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat organized an Expert Group Meeting on “Fertility, Changing Population Trends and Development: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future” at the United Nations headquarters in New York in October 2013. The meeting brought together experts from different regions of the world to address key questions about the future pace of fertility change, implications for age structure changes and other population trends, and effective policy responses. This paper describes the challenges and opportunities of transitions to adulthood in high-fertility settings, focusing on the case of sub-Saharan Africa, which has the most youthful population in the world. Current challenges in the region are high levels of youth unemployment and under-employment and low levels of education in terms of quality of education and access to education.