Demography Is Destiny. But Whose?

Can demography — the study of how populations grow, move, and change — offer a window into a country’s future?

That’s what Leah talks about with Dr. Apoorva Jadhav, former USAID senior demographer and statistician, in this episode of Global Development Interrupted. Apoorva explains how USAID was rethinking the way it invested in development through the lens of demography — looking at population data and trends to understand where countries were headed and how to invest more strategically. That work came to an abrupt end when the agency was dismantled.

The conversation gets into what’s at stake when the data infrastructure behind development begins to erode. USAID invested in the long-term systems, standards, and expertise that allowed the U.S. and other countries and organizations to make smarter investments and address real problems. Without that foundation, what happens to the quality of the data and the decisions built on it?

Because behind every data point is a person — and, as Apoorva puts it, “there is a pulse.”

Guest: Dr. Apoorva Jadhav, former Senior Demographer and Statistician, USAID Office of Population and Reproductive Health; author of Demography Matters on Substack

Topics: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV and disability data, child marriage, global migration policy, the dismantling of USAID, the future of development data

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