For Africa's future, educate women, Vatican's U.N. nuncio says

Published: 2007-04-12

UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -- The best and cheapest way to prepare Africa for a better future is to educate all its youths, especially girls and young women, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Vatican nuncio to the United Nations, said April 10. Addressing the 40th session of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development, the archbishop said that according to projections, by 2050 a large portion of Europe's population will be dependent elderly but "Africa is set to have the lowest dependency ratio in the world." "This projection should hand that continent an unprecedented advantage in economic terms, as a young and numerous workforce should be available to it until at least 2050, while the demographic dividend in most other regions will have run out," he said. He said it is important "to assure that Africa will not miss this window of opportunity for economic development," and in the view of the Vatican's U.N. delegation, "the most decisive investment to be made here is in education." Since many of the people who will make up Africa's workforce in the coming decades "are already born and are already of school age," Archbishop Migliore urged immediate efforts to achieve primary education for all African children by the year 2015. He said that according to an estimate by the U.N. Secretariat, meeting that goal "would cost $9 billion estimated in 1998 dollar value." "By any estimate, this can hardly be considered a high price to pay for such a prize," he said.

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