24 May, 2017- UNFPA Iran organized the first workshop on“Demographic Windows of Opportunity and Possibility of Harnessing, the Demographic Dividend in Iran” in collaboration with the Ministry of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare.

This workshop is in line with a series of workshops in the area of demographic dividend in Iran that aims to train experts from the implementing partners of the new programme.

In this workshop, two renowned university professors, Dr. Jalal Abbasi Shevazi and Dr. Saeed Kousheshi will have presentations with regard to the role of population dynamics and adaptation of appropriate policies to benefit the existing window of opportunity in the country.

The participants are a number of experts from provinces and various ministries who will be acquainted with the topic to incorporate the demographic elements in their plans and programmes.

Summary of the objectives of the workshop:

From left: Dr. Joudane, Dr. Mansouri, and Prof. Abbasi

More than 75 per cent of the country’s population is in active and working age which is named as population window of opportunity.  This situation is created due to the population transition and following to the fertility decline and according to many of demographers is called golden period of population.

Data reveals that as of 2005, Iran’s population ratio of 0-14 years has reached to 25 percent and the ratio of 65 years old population has reached to more than 5.1 and the country is placed in the window of opportunity phase. The prospects reveal that by the growth of aged people this window will start to be closed up to the end of 2030.

At present there is an opportunity to benefit from this opportunity or demographic dividend and the I.R. of Iran is among high level countries in the areas of health and education indicators in the South West Asia region.  The huge young, educated, healthy and job searching population has created great potential to increase the family income at present and future, improve the health and welfare of the people, strengthen the sources of pension fund and appropriately benefit this opportunity will guarantee the economic and development growth of the country for the next decades.  The only issue that has been left behind and needs essential evolution to fully benefit this situation is adaptation of strategic policies to manage the country’s population and creating secured economic, political and social ground to get and lead local and foreign resources. This will not be achieved unless multi-dimensional development of the country and prosperity of huge population in working age and active be at the highest level of the policy-makers agenda and the government programmes.   This issue should be placed as the priority of all responsible people and high level decision makers to consider the financial and spiritual prosperity of the population.   Accordingly, we can expect that the window of opportunity during the procedure of growth and development has changed to the benefit of the population like many other countries that have experienced this opportunity.

Taking into account the unique situation of the population and macro-economic policies of the country, this workshop is organized to improve the knowledge and information in the trend and consequences of the changes in the age structure, concepts and theories of the demographic dividend and its effects on the economy and entrepreneurship while reviewing other countries’ experiences.  This workshop is the first step in line with the technical capacity improvements of the government organizations and relevant entities to develop the national priorities and benefit the demographic dividend in Iran.