Abstract

PIP: The World Conference on Social Development focused on the question of global poverty. Africa is the poverty continent. Its populations, governments, and institutions are poor. Some of these institutions work on population and demographic research. More preoccupying is the demographic situation in Africa in relation to development. The stakes of the debate are certainly enormous, which haunted the meeting rooms and minds at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. Specialists and responsible policymakers regretted that this conference did not deeply examine the question of socioeconomic development. One of the major difficulties impeding closure of this debate is the uncertainty of the nature of relations between demographic growth and economic development. Demographic research in Africa is very recent. The first population censuses occurred in the 1970s. African demographic research is a prisoner of poverty. To be effective, acceptable, and accepted, population and demographic research would have to depend on precise knowledge of the demographic-economic situation of Africa. African researchers do not have statistical and qualitative arguments at their command, which would allow them to consider the debate on conclusions and actions which will come out of the debate. It is tempting to call for a plan for the future of African demographic research centers and the paths and means to reinvigorate them to make them sustainable and to allow them to support a substantial contribution to this debate. Development in Africa must be the work of the African populations. African researchers must think of and execute the demographic research necessary to this development.