The Republic of the Union of Myanmar

1 Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population

World Population Day Commemorative Ceremony

11th July 2016

World Population Day Theme

“Investing in Teenage Girls”

“ဆယ်ကျော်သျ် မိန်းျကေးမေားဘဝ မှ င််တင််ကေး၊ ေ််းနီှးမှ ငုပ်နံှ ပံတပုိးကပး”

“The success of the new sustainable development agenda depends on how well we support and invest in teenage girls”

KEY MESSAGES

The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an unprecedented opportunity for teenage girls to claim their rights, realize their aspirations and transform our world. When countries invest in the health and education of their youth, especially teenage girls, and create opportunities for them to realize their full potential, they are also better positioned to realize a demographic dividend, which can propel economic growth to combat poverty.

KEY MESSAGES

INVESTING IN TEENAGE GIRLS TO

HARNESS THE DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND

IN MYANMAR

What is Demographic Dividend(DD)?

What is Myanmar Situation?

What are the key pillars to harness

the DD?

What should we do to reap DD?

OUTLINE

What is Demographic Dividend(DD)?

Demographic transition from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality

Increase of the size of the working age population relative to dependent population

Reduction of the dependency ratio

DD is an opportunity and is not automatic

Demographic Divided refers to Rapid Economic Growth in a country as consequence of :

In order to translate the favorable demographic conditions into economic gain, governments

have to create the right policy environment and invest in key sectors of the economy.

What is Demographic Dividend(DD)?

The proportion of

children in the

population has been

declining

Rapid growth of the

population of young

people

People in 10-14 age

group are the most

Working age group 15-

64 is increasing

(Population Bonus) 15 10 5 0 5 10 15

0 - 4

5 - 9

10 -14

15 - 19

20 - 24

25 - 29

30 - 34

35 - 39

40 - 44

45 - 49

50 - 54

55 - 59

60 - 64

65 - 69

70 - 74

75 - 79

80 - 84

85 - 89

90 +

Myanmar Population Pyramid, 2014 Census

Male Female

(%)

What is Myanmar situation?

Population Pyramid 1973, 1983 & 2014

3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000

0 - 4

5 - 9

10-14

15 - 19

20 - 24

25 - 29

30 - 34

35 - 39

40 - 44

45 - 49

50 - 54

55 - 59

60 - 64

65 - 69

70 - 74

75 - 79

80 - 84

85 - 89

90+

1973 Census 1983 Census 2014 Census

Males Females

• Population pyramid

in 1973 and 1983 are

bottom based

signifying youthful

population

• Pyramid in 2014

shows a pot shaped,

signify slow

population growth

What is Myanmar Situation?

Population

aged

0 – 14

Population

aged

15-64

Population

aged 65

and over

Total

dependency

ratio

Child

dependency

ratio

Old

dependency

ratio

2014

Census 14,399,569

32,982,768

2,897,563 52.5 43.7 8.8

1983

Census

13,159,645

19,625,065

1,340,198 73.9 67.1 6.8

1973

Census

11,643,840

15,411,041

1,029,632 82.2 75.6 6.7

The Total Dependency Ratio for Myanmar was 52.5 in

2014 compared to 73.9 in 1983 and 82.2 in 1973.

What is Myanmar Situation?

What is Myanmar Situation?

Education attainment by sex (25 years and over)

11.97

39.86

24.08

13.98

2.73

0.21

0.30

5.00

0.23

1.63

16.19

44.14

17.45

11.10

2.30

0.11

0.19

6.98

0.42

1.12

- 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00

None

Primary school

Middle school

High school

College

Vocational training

Diploma

Graduate

Post-graduate and above

Other

Female

Male

Percentage of currently attending school drops

drastically after the age of 12 for both males and females

-

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Percentage of males and females currently attending school

Both sexes

Males

Females% a

tte

nd

ing

sch

oo

l

Age in Years

What is Myanmar Situation?

What is Myanmar Situation?

Female labour force participation is much lower than

males at all ages

-

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

15

- 1

9

20

- 2

4

25

- 2

9

30

- 3

4

35

- 3

9

40

- 4

4

45

- 4

9

50

- 5

4

55

- 5

9

60

- 6

4

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Labour Force Participation Rate, males and females aged 15-64 years

Union

Males

Females

Age Groups

What is Myanmar Situation?

The unemployment rate among young people (aged 15-

19) is 10 %, which is much higher than the Union

average at 4.0 %

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

15

- 1

9

20

- 2

4

25

- 2

9

30

- 3

4

35

- 3

9

40

- 4

4

45

- 4

9

50

- 5

4

55

- 5

9

60

- 6

4

Un

emp

loym

en

t ra

te (

%)

Age Groups

Unemployment rate for males and females aged 15-64 years

Both sexes

Males

Females

What is Myanmar Situation?

About 33 for every 1,000 adolescent girls give birth

between age 15 – 19.

Shan and Chin have the highest adolescent fertility

rates

33

22

38

21 23 27 27 28

31 33 37 38 38 39 39 40

50

59

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

What is Myanmar Situation?

Most of the

international

migrants are young

people (15 – 39)

Significant

proportion of young

migrant girls 15 10 5 0 5 10

0 - 4

5 - 9

10 - 14

15 - 19

20 - 24

25 - 29

30 - 34

35 - 39

40 - 44

45 - 49

50 - 54

55 - 59

60 - 64

65 - 69

70 - 74

75 - 79

80+

Age-sex pyramid of former household

members living abroad

Males Females

%

The country's favorable current age composition still

holds the opportunity for higher productivity and

economic growth.

By creating jobs and investing in health and

education to build human capital, many countries

across Asian Tigers, Latin America, and North Africa

have benefited from a demographic dividend.

What should we do to reap DD?

Policy Interventions Facilitating a Demographic Dividend

• Improving People’s

Health

• Investing in Education

•Tailoring Economic

Policies

•Strengthen

Governance practices

What should we do to reap DD?

What should we do to reap DD?

Strong investments in children and young people’s health, including sexual and reproductive health and family planning, will support young people to grow up to be healthy, productive adults ready to contribute to country’s economy.

Educating girls is an important long-term economic investment, because girls with more education tend to delay their marriage, participate in the formal labor force and have higher earning potential.

Increasing the educational attainment of young people builds a skilled workforce.

What should we do to reap DD? Ensuring that job opportunities are available for both

highly educated young people and unskilled laborers is vital to reducing both unemployment and underemployment.

Policies that promote job market growth will support a prosperous, productive, and sustainable future for Myanmar.

With a labour force participation rate of 51 percent of women, the capacity of women to contribute to the country's economic growth has been underutilized. Thus, it is essential to increase the labor force participation rate of women to reap the demographic dividend.

Consequences of not investing in young people?

However, if mismanaged, this opportunity can easily turn out into a 'demographic burden'.

If the country is unable to generate at least a number of jobs equal to the new entrants in the labor market, then economic growth will be jeopardized.

Consequently, poverty levels would increase and the country would have to deal with a growing group of disillusioned, unemployed young people who are unable to find proper place on the job market.

Be prepared to invest in

teenage girls to harness the

Demographic dividend by

using census data!

Thank You!

World Population Day Theme

“Investing in Teenage Girls”

“ဆယ်ကျော်သျ် မိန်းျကေးမေားဘဝ မှ င််တင််ကေး၊ ေ််းနီှးမှ ငုပ်နံှ ပံတပုိးကပး”