PRB Webcasts

Investing in youth helps achieve the Millennium Development Goals, promotes gender equality, reduces child mortality, improves maternal health, and combats HIV/AIDS. Yet calls for appropriate programs, services, and funding have gone largely unanswered and many of the world’s 1.2 billion youth are at high risk of unplanned pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and sexually transmitted infections. In this interview, James Gribble, vice president of International Programs at PRB and author of the brief, explains why investing in reproductive health for youth is critical to economic development, what types of programs have proven effective to address the reproductive health needs of youth, and what policies need to be put into place to strengthen outreach to youth.

It is estimated that 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide have been affected by female genital mutilation, or FGM. The practice, involving partial or total removal of the external genitals of girls and women for nonmedical reasons, has devastating immediate and long-term health and social effects. The Honorable Amina Salum Ali is the Permanent Representative of the African Union to the United States. In this interview, Ali describes what the African Union has done to combat FGM, what is needed to eliminate the practice beyond legal instruments, the social context of the practice, and how she feels about the future for Africa's women.

How equipped Americans are with the knowledge and skills they need to make financial decisions determine retirement options, homeownership, college education, and more. The National Financial Capability Survey, released in December 2009 by the FINRA Foundation, is the first of its kind in the United States. The survey explores how Americans manage their resources and how they make financial decisions. As Americans grapple with the current recession, the results are troubling: Only 41 percent of parents have set aside money for their children's college education, the majority of Americans don't have an emergency fund for financial emergencies and are not prepared for retirement, and more than one in five respondents use high-cost borrowing methods such as payday loans or pawn shops.

Annamaria Lusardi has studied financial literacy and financial capability in the United States and around the world. She is a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, a regular contributor to the International Business Times, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In this interview, she discusses how the financial landscape has become more complex, how Americans score on financial capability and literacy, and the personal implications of low financial capability.

It is estimated that 5,000 women worldwide are murdered every year in so-called "honor killings"—committed by a woman's relatives in order to cleanse the family of acts the woman has engaged in that they consider "immoral." Feminist and human rights defender, Jordanian Rana Husseini is a leading international investigative journalist whose reporting has put violence against women on the public agenda around the world. The recipient of numerous awards for bravery in journalism, she is a regular speaker at major international events. In this interview, Husseini describes her personal journey of investigating this practice over the years, the varied countries and cultures in which "honor killings" take place, and what types of policy and grassroots efforts are needed to address this abuse.

Despite the extensive research done on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there have been relatively few studies on the impact of HIV/AIDS on older persons in developing countries. While some older persons are at risk or infected, a much larger number are affected through the illness or death of their adult sons and daughters and other family members. John Knodel, has studied the involvement of older people in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, specifically in Southeast Asia. He is Research Professor Emeritus at the Population Studies Center and Professor Emeritus, Sociology at the University of Michigan. His research focuses not only on the consequences of HIV/AIDS on older persons, but also their contributions to helping their family members and communities cope with the disease.

Whether countries with large youth populations will be able to provide education and employment opportunities to young people over the coming years and decades is one of the major questions facing developing countries. The answer not only affects the well-being of youth, but affects many countries' stability and security as well. Henrik Urdal, senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Civil War and associate editor of the Journal of Peace Research at International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway, talked with PRB about youth bulges and urbanization and their effects on conflict.

The Population Reference Bureau released its 2009 World Population Data Sheet on Aug. 12, 2009, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC with presentations highlighting children and youth, the them of this year's data sheet. Carl Haub, senior demographer and Conrad Taeuber chair of population information; Linda Jacobsen, vice president of Domestic Programs; and James Gribble, vice president of International Programs.

Family planning is one of the most cost-effective health interventions in the developing world. For decades, research has shown that for a relatively modest investment, family planning saves lives and improves maternal and child health. However, there have been relatively few studies that detail the ways in which family planning also lifts families out of poverty by helping poor women have fewer children. Now, a new study on Bangladesh provides evidence that long-term investment in an integrated family planning and maternal and child health program contributes to improved economic security for families, households, and communities through larger incomes, greater accumulation of wealth, and higher levels of education. In this interview, Jay Gribble, vice president of International Programs at PRB and a co-author of the brief, discusses how the FPMCH program benefitted women and families in the Matlab area villages in terms of livelihoods, health, and education, as well as the policy implications of the recent study's findings.

Social relationships keep older people healthy, and the marriage relationship is especially beneficial. A growing body of research helps explain how social interaction interacts with social, physical, and psychological factors that affect an individual's health, and the importance of maintaining social networks and relationships later in life. Social relationships and interaction are associated with a wide range of health benefit, especially in older ages. The benefits of marriage extend beyond the daily social interaction and the shared network of family and friends. Sociologist and demographer Linda Waite discussed her research on these interactions with PRB.

With continued population aging, the loss of cognitive function among some older Americans foreshadows a potentially enormous social and economic burden. In this interview, Kenneth Langa, University of Michigan School of Medicine and Institute for Social Research, discusses cognitive impairment and its causes, trends, and effects in the United States. He warns that certain trends may adversely affect the brain health of Americans, especially rising obesity rates and a consequent increase in diabetes, which is also associated with declining cognitive function among older adults.