Africa in the 21st Century faces numerous population and development opportunities and challenges. Many countries have taken advantage of global and local opportunities to effect economic reforms that have raised incomes and reduced poverty; and there have been improvements in human development including rising school enrolment rates, lower childhood mortality, and declining fertility. Gains have also been noted against epidemiological burdens, including HIV and AIDS. HIV incidence and prevalence rates are beginning to drop in many countries and there are some success stories of declines in childhood mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.

However, this progress in population and human development is not even across the continent or within nations. Huge disparities exist between and within countries, between women and men, between rural and urban residents, and between the poorest and the wealthiest in the continent. As nations assess their progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is clear that without amplified investments in human development and without addressing equity issues, the goals to eradicate extreme poverty through improved health, education, and environmental sustainability will not be realised.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is expected to reach 1.7 billion in the next forty -five years. Early marriage, high desired family size, gender disparity in socio-economic status, low contraceptive use, and unequal access to information and services are some of the major reasons for sustained high fertility in Africa. This rapid population growth is happening in a context of high levels of poverty, poor education, low economic growth, environmental degradation, and food insecurity. Yet, empirical knowledge of the potential role of population dynamics on poverty eradication is limited, especially in the context of the MDGs. Although globalisation increases opportunities for economic growth and access to information and technology, Africa has not benefited fully from this process.

Further, the agricultural sector, which is the backbone of many African economies, is largely underdeveloped and undercapitalized. Due to declining economic opportunities in rural areas, many young adults migrate from rural to urban areas in search of better livelihood opportunities. The resulting rapid urbanization, which is happening in a context of weak economic growth and poor planning, has resulted in a fast growing urban population, the majority of which is living in large slum settlements that lack basic amenities. As the urban population grows - and estimates suggest that more than half of the continent’s population will live in urban areas by 2030 - the health and social consequences of urban poverty will not only be felt among this subgroup but will spill over to the rest of the continent and beyond.

High mortality rates, especially among children and mothers, have been a characteristic of the African continent for decades.

While the continent saw an almost universal decline in child mortality rates between the 1970s and early 1990s, there is now evidence of a reversal of this trend especially in countries with weak health systems and those that have been worst affected by HIV and AIDS. Endemic diseases such as malaria and the re-emergence of tuberculosis have compounded the challenges of halting the spread of HIV and mitigating the impact of AIDS. More than 20 million Africans are living with the HIV virus and only a small fraction of these are able to access antiretroviral therapies (ARTs). Even where access to ART has improved, hunger and widespread poverty continue to make HIV and AIDS the biggest challenge to Africa to date. Sub-Saharan Africa also continues to face new threats from non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and diabetes. The Fifth African Population Conference is jointly organized by Government of the Republic of Tanzania and the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS). The conference will bring together multidisciplinary scientists, policymakers, practitioners, stakeholders and development partners to discuss these and other population and development challenges facing the continent. Participants will engage in scientific and policy discourse to help Africa engage meaningfully in its population and development agenda. The success of the conference should be judged not only by the quality of scientific papers or how many people attend, but even more importantly by how much progress the continent will make in addressing poverty, population, and health issues in the next decade as a result of presentations and networks forged at the conference.