Population and Development in West Africa: Nexuses between Migration, Urbanization and Demographic Dividend

Mamadú Cissé, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)

The debate on the political and research agenda on population and development in the African context has attracted the attention of research centers and multilateral organizations: from specialized events of institutes, universities and think tanks to political forums like UNFPA and IOM (both at UN level), African and European Union, OECD, ECOWAS and much more. In addition, organized civil society and disciplines from various areas of the social sciences are also participants in these discussions. Thus, my intention in this brief paper is not to go deep in the subject or be exhaustive in my approach. Once an overview of relevant aspects for the debate has been drawn, namely: identifying nexuses for the discussion of issues such as human mobility, urbanization and development – it would be enough for the good conclusion of this reflection. To this end, I begin by bringing a brief review of the specialized literature on the subject, present some available evidence and data, and close with some pertinent reflections resulting from the discussions that I will carry out below.

Keywords: Population and Development, Internal Migration and Urbanization

See extended abstract.