The Eighth Annual PopPov Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development was held Jan. 22-25, 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference was co-sponsored by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Population Reference Bureau, and The African Population Health and Research Center. Ninety researchers and policymakers from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, the United States and South Asia attended the conference, where they discussed ongoing research on topics ranging from the employment consequences of a woman’s reproductive history to the effect of changes in population age structure on youth unemployment.
Tweets (#poppov14) and blogs highlight some themes that emerged during the conference.
Both the keynote speaker, Jotham Musinguzi, and a panel spoke about the potential for a demographic dividend in Africa The panelists included John May of PRB, Eliya Zulu of AFIDEP, Jane Kiringai of the World Bank, and Alex Ezeh of APHRC. One common message from these speakers is the need to assess the trajectory of individual countries.
Communicating research findings to policymakers is a goal of the Hewlett Foundation’s Population and Poverty Initiative. This initiative supported the research of many participants in this and past conferences. PRB’s Vice President of International Programs Susan Rich interviewed the keynote speaker Jotham Musinguzi of Partners in Population and Development (PPD) about progress on this goal.
A panel of researchers and funders provided insight on how to engage policymakers and program staff. In her closing remarks Ruth Levine, Director of the Global Development and Population Program at the Hewlett Foundation, provided her perspective on basic research and research directed at answering specific policy questions.
Please find below links to some of the materials mentioned above and to an outline of the Methods Workshop that preceded the conference.
Download the Conference agenda (final): (PDF)
Read blogs by Conference participants: 2014 PopPov Blog Archive
Read abstracts of papers: (PDF)