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tv   Africas Population Explosion  BBC News  September 2, 2017 1:30pm-2:01pm BST

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extent. sunshine tending more hazy ahead of this rain. there could be a shower across east anglia towards kent. but it's here we will find the highest temperatures. a pleasant day with light winds. to the west we see this change coming along as the cloud thickens, we get rain this evening into northern ireland and by the end of the night with winds picking up rain into western fringes of scotland, western parts of wales and the far south—west of england. not as cold as last night because there will be high cloud spilling on ahead of that rain. we will have hazy sunshine tomorrow. best of the weather near the coast. this rain is staggering eastwards slowly but surely. at the same time, the rain becomes lighter and more drizzly and it will be damp and low cloud. that will limit temperatures to 15 or 16. where we get something brighter to the east coast, 19 or 20 is just about possible. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: it's believed more than 1,400 people have died and a0 million have been left homeless or displaced after catastrophic flooding across
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several south asian countries. utility companies could be charged by the hourfor digging up busy roads in england in a bid to encourage contractors to speed up their work and reduce delays. a grammar school in south—east london has reversed its decision to force some a—level pupils to leave halfway through their course because they weren't expected to gain high enough grades. the former shadow equalities minister sarah champion has said labour is failing to confront the truth about sex crimes. those are the headlines. do stay in touch. thank you for your company so far. now on bbc news, a special programme looking at africa's population explosion.
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the population of africa is set to double by the year 2050. to 2.5 billion people. the young are moving from the countryside to the towns. unfortunately for us, in the last two, three years it's been a deluge. but many end up in slums and cities are struggling to cope. an industrial revolution could transform african countries and lift millions out of poverty. every year it grows, 20 millionjobs per year over the coming decades. but i don't use could mean millions more migrants
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and drive many into the hands of islamist extremists. and that is everyone‘s problem. there is nowhere in the world where women have more children. half the girls here are married by 15. so it isn't surprising that children have children. we are on the fringe of the sahara desert, not far from nigeria's northern border. niger is one of the world—class microporous countries. it is mostly agricultural. the average number of children born a woman is 7.6. and here it is even higher
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than that, so the government and aid agencies are trying to do something about it. tucked away, out of earshot, girls as young as ten talk about topics many adults here consider taboo. family planning, contraception, early marriage, and even forced marriage. three older girls take the lead. the aid workers who have trained them call this the safe space class. this woman is 27 and has four children. translation: one of the things we are teaching the girls here is about early marriage and the consequences of having children before they are 18.
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during the delivery a girl can lose her life, or the child could die. before this programme, women had many children, but with the coming of this programme the number of children is really reducing. who decides how many children you should have? translation: my husband, he decides that. and that's the crux of it, the husband decide. and so they started a husbands school. translation: if you give your daughter away at 12 it could be a disaster. the conversation is just as open on this side of the village. translation: having fewer children helped the woman to be able to breast—feed properly. translation: before we learned from this programme many of our kids
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were not healthy, but now we don't have a problem. this man is 27, he is one of the more enthusiastic converts to the fewer kids philosophy. he and his wife have three children. translation: i come from a big family. my father has three wives. i have about 16 siblings. i'm not sure how many we are, but i think we are 16. the idea that more children means more hands to help on the farm doesn't ring true with him any more. translation: no, if someone has ten children, only three,
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four of them are healthy, so it's better to have four, that is better for work in the field. truly, there is a problem here with having too many children. but now we have been the husband school we know more. we can have a child, and wait for a while before having the next one. even if some people do change their mind and decide to have fewer babies, the dramatic growth in population will take a long time to slow down. by 2050 the number of people in niger will triple the 21 million here today. traditions are hard to shift and the culture is to have many, many children. but this is the way to do it. show them what the options are at a mobile clinic. another case of tackling taboo four head on. and from the crowd, a woman decides to have a three—year contraception implant in front of everyone, saying she has had three kids and she is happy with that for now. translation: i decided to do it in front of everybody so they can see how it is done. because before there were rumours that while doing it it hurts. and they see themselves today
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that it does not hurt at all. and it did persuade a few sceptics. this woman said her husband had given her permission, in fact it was his idea, he is educated, she told me, and he heard them talking about it in husbands school. they are small steps towards bringing the birth rate down. this population explosion matters. across africa, but more so in niger, all of these young people are a bonus if the country is on the rise but can also be a burden. translation: the immediate consequences of having such a high birth rate is that it is impossible to feed, educate, and care for all of these children in the short term. in the long—term the very survival of the country is threatened unless we take this window of opportunity to make the most this youth dividend. it could encourage things like terrorism and immigration.
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there are fewjobs in the countryside. on both sides of this border between northern nigeria and niger boko haram recruit idle youth. those who can hit the big urban areas. from here we followed one man who has left to make it big in lagos. his family are talking about the son and brother, the husband and father, who left his wife and one—year—old boy behind. translation: we don't have money to eat, so we had to send him to look for money. he send around $100 every now and again which they use for the farm, food, and clothes. it is quite a contrast,
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moving from a village of 7000 people to africa's largest city. this was not quite what he had in mind, but optimism is emblazoned across his chest. translation: i don't have it easy. but i realised how much hard it was to get work. but you can't just sit here without a job. i wanted to buy and sell, to have a shop, and to make enough money to go back to school to get the rest of my education. every day thousands of people arriving lagos, africa's largest city, looking for the same thing, a new start in life. many end up in the slums, struggling to make a living. there have always been mixed blessings of having to deal with the influx of people. unfortunately for us, in the last two, three years,
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it has been a deluge. we want the people to be here to bring ideas, values, and innovation. but we are onlyjust able to deal with it. this is what an african mega city looks like. it is crowded, chaotic, and crumbling. lagos is already struggling to house, to look after, and to educate the way over 21 million people already living here. let alone the millions more predicted to crash into the city. but with this worry also comes opportunity. this festival celebrates historic culture. in the overcrowded slums, masquerades represent the spirit of the dead, returned to cleanse the city of evil and pray for peace and prosperity. emerging from the rusted tin roofs is one answer to the prayers, building up.
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how are we going to accommodate all of the population? we must go up. this man has spent 25 years as an urban planner in los angeles. now he has brought his skills home. now that we are able to go vertically, we are able to reduce overcrowding. it gives the advantage of the air space, which has been lost. tower blocks are not a new idea and they are expensive, but lagos needs to renew without moving people out. one answer is creative financing, to lure private investment into affordable housing. we can introduce some of the ideas i have brought from los angeles and see which ones are usable.
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this is the other way to deal with slums. this community was cleared in march, despite a court order protecting it. many people fear they will be next. a lot of communities will be under threat of eviction. about 1000 people will be rendered slowly if this action is carried out. two, three slums will rise up after this, because people need somewhere to sleep. two, three slums will rise up after this, because people need somewhere to sleep. there two main industries in the slums, fishing and dredging for building sand. but the beach is quiet. the people say the security forces came and smashed up the boats. translation: i am very angry.
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they destroyed my boat and my husband's boats. we have no money. we have had to withdraw the children from school. the state government cites security reasons and says people are never forcibly removed, but people here things it just wants them out. all of these communities were demolished so that the rich would benefit from it. so, i feel strongly that the state government is interested in the land, but we are not going to give in. the lagos government know that the waterfront community is expensive land. there are big plans for waterfront living. there is to be a manhattan style development. and there are other
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building projects. we are on the east end of the site. between here and there, we have the hotel... this man is developing a $100 million site. lagos has to balance a modern vision against its growing inequality. there will always remain the super—rich and the people just below the poverty line. the hope is that over the next few years you will see that gap bridged as more people getjobs. the only way to manage a massive, over growing mega— city is to invest in infrastructure, whether it be power lines, or rail lines. this will be nigeria's first—ever electrical light railway system. within ten years they want six of these lines crisscrossing the state, keeping lagos on the move. but the city is outgrowing efforts to house, employee, and serve its people. we are in an open age. people are going to keep coming.
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we have to find more creative ways to accommodate more people. climate change, drought, and a doubling population are already testing the continent's capacity to feed itself. and by 2050 a quarter of the world will be africans. farming needs to be much more productive. kenya is at the forefront of a big, international effort to create better plans that produce more crops in the harshest conditions. smallholder farmers here could easily produce four times as much food. this man is one of the guinea pigs. he has replaced most of his maize with a mixture of old—fashioned crops like millet and peas, which put nutrients back into the soil. translation: these days
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we are getting less rain. when i applaud these crops i know i will have something. unlike with maize. millet and peas normally resist the drought. he's also been given new and improved plants, hybrids he is happy with. translation: these peas are bigger, they mature faster, and they can get two crops in a year, better than one. that is where the science comes in, finding the best strains means crossbreeding hundreds of plants to isolate the traits they are looking for. we are trying to combine traits, characteristics from different plants into one, so we end up with a superior plant that is early maturing, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to many pests and diseases. and as well as being highly nutritious. and this new dna profiling lab in nairobi makes that process a lot quicker. this machine tries to understand the differences in the populations
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of hundreds of crops. it isn't genetically modifying, but by sequencing varieties of 101 carefully chosen traditional african food crops they can go straight in to find the best performing strains. we have a random selection. we go for selecting only those types which contain the signatures of high yield and for drought tolerance. nutritionist have to get people excited about these crops in a place where maize is everything. so, to cooking school in rural kenya. these foods used to be staples in kenya. before colonialism brought maize along. they are more drought resistant, more nutritious,
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and pretty easy to rustle up into all sorts of meals. i have two... and this is the pigeon pea stew. the little bit of everything. very good. chuckles four young farmers have been chosen to put their skills to the ultimate test... and the other thing is to persuade young people to stay on the farm. this reality tv show is kenya's attempt to make farming seem cool. it is aimed particularly at millennials. it shows that farming is a business, that money can be made. it also helps older farmers up their output, making small holding more productive and profitable is one step towards growing enough food.
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but for the demographic dividend to be cashed in people need jobs. agricultural revolution is the precursor of the industrial revolution. here in ethiopia there's a grand plan. the first industrial park was built in addis ababa. but the biggest was just opened south of the capital in it has the fastest—growing economy, albeit from a low base, and it has become the darling of international investors. it is a phenomenal project... the architect of this new industrial revolution is meeting executives from some of the world's
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biggest textile companies. he built it and they came. ethiopian workers already have jobs making the fabric, putting the garments together. translation: the pay isn't great but it isn'tjust about money, but about building a better future for me and the country. the big solution to the population explosion in ethiopian is putting its young people to work. they are building these vast industrial parks across the country, putting in infrastructure, training up a workforce, and attracting foreign companies to make their shirts, skirts, suits, and socks here rather than in asia. as in much of africa, china has a hand in the expansion and sees echoes of its own dramatic growth. translation: why did we choose ethiopian? it has a stable political situation and a peaceful society. and it is the second biggest country in africa without a big population there is no market. there is a huge amount of building going on across ethiopia.
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scale and ambition is impressive. row after row, government built social housing. a new electric railway to whisk imports and exports between the capital and the coast. perhaps the most visible sign of ethiopian‘s growth is its airline. it has been dramatically expanding over the last ten years. it is government own. ethiopian airlines flies all over the world. what better advert for a country on the rise? we can learn from china that making investment in the long term in infrastructure is quite important. the population is growing by about 5%. we need to create close to 1 million jobs every year. this is a big challenge. manufacturing has a significant part injob creation. this provides an opportunity for what we call the demographic dividend. but without having a policy it will be difficult. aggressive policies
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in ethiopian mean a heavy hand. protests were crushed. a state of emergency has just ended. there were questions about lack of freedoms and authoritarianism. building democracies that are sustaining means a lot of effort. we are going to put in a lot of effort despite the issues we have. ethiopia has also built a lot of universities, focusing now on engineering and technology rather than arts. but what about the dilemma? what is important, economic growth, or freedom of speech and democracy? it's not as if one is more important than the other, but definitely economic growth is a means to our democracy. it is a path for our democracy, a path for freedom of speech. if there is the education in a country, and people are still hungry, what are they going to speak about?
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industrialisation isn't the only answer to africa's population explosion, but is already creating dividends for easier could's economy. if it gets the balance right it could to put a continent to work. in much of africa that is a big ask. in poor countries like niger it seems the economy won't come close to keeping up with population growth. in rich ones like nigeria it comes down to good thoughts and good actions. even if the speed and scale of urban growth offers its own set of challenges. this african population explosion is coming and its impact will be felt across the globe for good orfor bad. we have a weekend of two
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halves essentially. we have wetter weather arriving from the west overnight and this is where the thickest weather is. very little rain today, make the most of the sunshine. it will be turning a bit more hazy across northern ireland with high cloud
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spilling ahead of the rain to come. good sunshine across scotland. temperatures 17 or 18. the touch warmerfor england temperatures 17 or 18. the touch warmer for england and wales. fairweather cloud bubbling up inland. 0ne fairweather cloud bubbling up inland. one or fairweather cloud bubbling up inland. 0ne ortwo fairweather cloud bubbling up inland. one or two showers across norfolk, suffolk and perhaps into kent as well, but getting up to 20 oi’ kent as well, but getting up to 20 or21. kent as well, but getting up to 20 or 21. the cloud will come through this evening. it should be dry for the wealth world cup qualifying match. the rain holding of until the end of the night, but as the rain picks up, it will be blown into western fringes of scotland and the south—west of england. the night should not be as cold as it was last night. hazy sunshine tomorrow, but eastern scotland and eastern parts of england will have thickening cloud. a lot of low cloud where we
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have the rain. temperatures 15, 16 degrees. towards the east coast, 19 oi’ degrees. towards the east coast, 19 or 20 degrees is possible. for the tour of britain or 20 degrees is possible. for the tourof britain in or 20 degrees is possible. for the tour of britain in the cycling, we could see the cloud thickening during the day as we arrived in kelso. there could be some drizzle in the airas kelso. there could be some drizzle in the air as well. this weather front is slowing down towards monday and petering out, but we have a more active weather system behind that in the north—west. in scotland, rain coming in quickly, pushing its way into scotland and northern ireland on monday. still damp with a lot of clout on monday. some warm air and temperatures could be 22 or 23 degrees in the south—east. this is bbc news.
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i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at two: the metropolitan police pays compensation to retired field marshal lord bramall, and the family of the late lord brittan over false accusations of child sex abuse. nearly 60,000 rohingya, the muslim minority in myanmar, have fled the country after violence erupted a week ago. so many people were killed. theyjust set fire to everything. ijust ran. they were shooting at us and i got hit. there were people whose throats were slashed with knives. more than 1,400 people have died
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and a0 million have been left homeless or displaced after catastrophic flooding across south asia. also in the next hour: utility companies could be charged by the hour for digging—up busy roads in england. new proposals to charge utility companies hope to encourage contractors to speed
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