high dependant population case study Gambia

Question 1

where is gambia

Answer 1

west africa

Question 2

level of development of gambia

Answer 2

LIC
- one of the poorest countries
-

Question 3

how much percentage of the workforce work in agriculture

Answer 3

75%

Question 4

life expectancy

Answer 4

68

Question 5

how many doctors per 1000 people

Answer 5

0.08

Question 6

infant mortality rate

Answer 6

highest in the world

Question 7

population is expected to

Answer 7

double every 28 years

Question 8

youth dependancy ratio

Answer 8

very high—- 80 children per 100 workers

Question 9

why does gambia have such a high youth dependancy ratio (4)

Answer 9

A lot of gambians live in rural areas, and the more hands they have the better it is for agricultural production because they can assist each other and their farms, that has been an idea for a long time so as a result people are still raising large families

Religious reasons, girls and women don’t get much of a say, they don’t work and they don’t really chose how many kids to have, they raise them
Cultural reasons/ in their culture it is normal to have a big family

Economic reasons/ the more people you have to work o your farm, the better it is

Their birth rate is more than three times as big as a MIDC (40/thousand) and that results in having one of the youngest populations of any country in the world

Question 10

stage of demographic transition model now

Answer 10

3

Question 11

why is it a problems to gambia’s development that it has a high youth dependancy ratio (5)

Answer 11

Rapid population growth means not enough jobs so problems with unemployment

So many people means there is a lot of pressure on resources, and this creates numerous challenges for a cash-strapped government(hard to provide for)

Such a big population means schooling and education can be an issue especially when the government doesn’t have a lot of money

The mortality rate is very high, and so a lot of children die, meaning as parents know they will die they have more children calculating that some won’t make it

High pressure on healthcare

Question 12

how is gambia trying to adress the problem of high dependancy and large population

Answer 12

Contraception, raising awareness on it/ giving it free

Family planning

Major child health program (reducing infant mortality rate)

Anti-natal policies(already mentioned, contraception)

Access to education improving (especially for girls)

Changing male attitude/ awareness

Raised age of marriage to 18 from 14

low agricultural productivity

food insecurity and malnutrition

weak public institutions