Foreign
THE Government of Niger, through the General Directorate of Budget of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, organized a workshop in Niamey on June 20, 2024, for technical support to the executives responsible for the elaboration and execution of the budget to include Demographic Dividend Responsive Budgeting in Niger’s budgetary process.
This meeting, which was held from June 20 to 21, 2024, was organized by the Sub-Regional Office for West Africa of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, SRO-WA/ECA,, in partnership with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Public Health, Population and Social Affairs.
This BSDD technical support workshop was held in a context in which the average annual intercostal growth rate of Niger’s population increased from 3.1% in 2001 to 3.9% in 2012, while demographic projections for the period 2012-2024 estimate this rate at 3.7% in 2021 (National Institute of Statistics, NIS, 2023). This exponential demographic growth is primarily induced by a high fertility level, with 6.2 children per woman in 2021.
Consequently, the population has grown from 17.1 million in 2012 to 25.4 million in 2023 (NIS, 2023). More than 50% of the Nigerien population is under the age of 15, which means that households and public authorities have major needs in terms of basic social services.
As a result of this high social demand, indicators of the coverage and quality of social services in education, health, etc. are stagnating or deteriorating, thus reducing the country’s socio-economic development potential.
According to the Director General of the Budget at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, DIOUF Djibo, “With a fertility rate of 6.2 children per woman, the concern is not the number, but it remains the quality of care”. “As sensitive as this issue may seem from a social, cultural, and economic perspective, it deserves to be studied and understood in order to limit any social, cultural, or economic impact,” added Diouf Djibo. “Aware of the stakes, the Government of Niger, through its national strategic documents, has made these sensitive to the dimensions of the demographic dividend,” explained the Director General of the Budget at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Fabien Ngendakuriyo, Economist at the SRO-WA/ECA, for his part, stated that “In order to reach the threshold of 50% and transform its demographic profile into opportunities for growth and socio-economic development, the status quo in terms of budget resource allocation is not a viable option for Niger”.
In this regard, Fabien Ngendakuriyo added: “A low budget allocation to the sector of education and health sectors, which are pillars of human capital development, risks delaying the demographic transition and the achievement of the sustainable development goals”.
Indeed, “budgetary expenditures on education has been reduced, from about 17% over the period 2013-2017 to 10% between 2018 and 2020. For health, however, there has been a slight increase, from 5.5% over the period 2013-2017 to 7% over the period 2018-2020”.
As these results show, BSDD does not ipso facto result in an increase in the total budget envelope. It is rather about an efficient reallocation of available resources to best meet the imperative of capturing the demographic dividend,” concluded Ngendakuriyo.
This technical workshop has materialized Niger’s commitment to accelerate the capture of the demographic dividend through the adoption of the BSDD approach in its budgetary process.
Its main objective was to strengthen the capacities of the ministries and institutions responsible for budget formulation and execution on the BSDD in order to support the effectiveness of public expenditure in the context of the execution of the 2024 budget and the consideration of the BSDD in the budgetary process for the 2025 fiscal year in Niger.
According to the statement by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, this technical workshop recorded the participation of executives from the General Directorate of Budget, GDB, the General Directorate of Population, the Ministry of National Education, Literacy, Vocational Education and Promotion of National Languages, the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, the National Institute of Statistics (NIS), the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, UNDP, and so on.
A.I
June 25, 2024 @ 06:58 GMT|
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