Training of population specialists for Africa’s needs: past, current and future
Population studies
25
Issue: 2
(12 - 2011)
Africa has been training population specialists since the early 1960s, following
some countries’ acquiring political independence. The training has consisted of
undergraduate degrees, post-graduate diplomas, masters, doctorates and post-
doctorates at regional and national institutions as well as centres found outside
the continent. Achievements of the training programme over several decades have
included many population specialists trained and helping in implementing the
population related projects in the region and building the capacity of several Afri-
can population training centres. Challenges have consisted of inadequate finan-
cial support from development partners and regional and national governments,
lack of scholarships for students, scarce research grants for staff and students,
development partners’ related issues, problems related to national and regional
governments, lack of interest in supporting training of technical demographers,
limitation of infrastructure for training, shortage of qualified trainers and unem-
ployment of graduates in population studies. It is recommended that national
governments and regional agencies provide core financing of African population
training centres and only mobilize donor funding as supplementary. More focus
should be directed to advanced research training to ensure that qualified popula-
tion specialists lost to the brain drain and other factors are continuously replaced.
African training institutions need to be more innovative and create new opportu-
nities of sustainability when the support being received is stopped.
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