Youth bulges, cybrids and ageing economies
First, women make up a disproportionate share of the elderly. If social protection provided by governments is not up to the task of care provision, this demographic could be at risk and place a substantial burden of care on younger generations of female relatives.
Second, women’s economic empowerment (and women’s control of their fertility) is often a crucial determinant of population growth – and therefore to sustainable growth – in all markets for gender-smart investors. The future of the trend depends on women’s economic empowerment.
- Opportunity
- medium
Opportunity to increase women’s control over their reproductive rights.
- Risk
- low
Women make up a disproportionate share of the elderly.
Women’s economic empowerment (and control of their fertility) is often a crucial determinant of population growth and therefore to sustainable growth in all markets for gender-smart investors.
- Opportunity
- medium
- Risk
- low
High levels of a young, technological savvy population will drive increasing demand for financial services. In the next ten years, more than one billion children will cross the threshold into adulthood – most of these will be living in developing countries. Creating jobs for the ‘youth bulge’, and ensuring that women are not left behind, is a significant challenge and creating sustainable livelihoods will require pathways towards self-employment and entrepreneurship.
These pathways will require improved (and earlier) access to financial services. For example, gender-smart investors can support investees to adopt a gender-specific lens for youth, including:
- Ensuring youth-friendly, peer-based and gender-sensitive outreach.
- Developing appropriate products and services, including effective risk management and financial, life skills and enterprise training.
- Opportunity
- medium
- Risk
- low
Youth bulges will substantially increase the supply of workers. Equal access to education will be crucial to ensuring women are competitive in labour markets. However, the Gender Parity Index for primary and secondary school education in sub-Saharan Africa is currently 0.93.
Female-focused skills development presents an opportunity for women’s economic empowerment, which gender-smart investors can foster by identifying the overlap between the (future) demand for skills and women’s existing skillset and their potential skillset post-training.
If existing education-centric investments lack the capacity or knowledge to fill the skill gaps identified, gender-smart investors might consider making new investments in unions, academies, universities and colleges that provide for upskilling.
Source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ENR.PRSC.FM.ZS?locations=ZG
- Risk
- low
Two key healthcare risks will affect women’s economic empowerment, as noted. First, women make up a disproportionate share of the elderly. Second, women’s economic empowerment (and control of their fertility) is often a crucial determinant of population growth, and therefore to sustainable growth.
To maintain women’s economic empowerment, it is crucial that gender-smart investors support investees to provide elderly care services and increase women’s control over their reproductive rights, for example, by helping them:
- Improve the level of consumer awareness and trust in contraceptives.
- Work with governments and international organisations to improve women’s control over their reproductive rights (e.g. by increasing access to contraceptives, introducing laws on minimum marriage ages, etc.).
- Develop attractive and cost-effective models for elderly care in developing countries.
