Demographers say the first members of Generation Beta are being born this month, following on the heels of Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. VOA spoke with African futurists on what they think will define the lives of the continent's Gen B'ers, from AI to better life expectancy and economic growth.
Labels like Baby Boomers, Millennials or Generation Alpha are increasingly used globally to describe people born about the same time, often sharing similar experiences and challenges.
VOA spoke with African futurists and scientists to understand how Gen B, who will be born between now and 2039, can expect Africa to have changed by the time they are adults.
Halidou Tinto is a scientist from Burkina Faso, who is conducting cutting edge research with the recently developed malaria vaccine. He says futurists believe that people born in Africa in 2024-2025 can reasonably expect that malaria will no longer be a major public health problem in the years to come, and especially when these babies become adults.
More than 200 million people in Africa catch malaria each year, and a half-million people die of it, according to the World Health Organization.
Malaria is particularly deadly for children. According to UNICEF, the U.N.’s children’s agency, improvements in public health like this will lead to a brighter future for children born in coming years.
Paul Quarles Van Ufford, a social policy adviser for UNICEF, says “Children born today, also, are less likely to die before their fifth birthday and one of the big progress stories in Africa, because of vaccination, management of diseases and that there is less poverty is that child mortality has reduced.”
He says that life expectancy in Africa has increased “exponentially” in the last 20 years. Data from the U.N. shows that if current trends continue, Africa’s life expectancy could reach 70 by 2050, compared to 61 years old now.
Researchers in Kenya — who have recently developed an Artificial Intelligence, or AI, chat bot to educate young people about HIV and AIDS — say the role of AI is going to grow in Africa.
Dr. Consolata Gakii, with the University of Embu, says “The young people are coming up with, utilizing AI to solve societal or local problems, from image processing to precision of weather, there is so much that is happening within our country,” she said.
Jakkie Cilliers, head of African Futures at the South Africa based Institute for Security Studies, says Gen B’s relationship with technologies like AI will only expand in coming years.
“It’s a future of more freedom and more self-dependence, a future of innovation, a future in which technology really leads to benefit the ordinary person and the relationship between technology and the individual, I think is, just every year, is going to expand,” he said.
Cilliers adds that tech will allow greater access to the globally developing “gig economy,” which means workers will become less reliant on the government.
He also says that about the time Gen B members become adults, the continent will pass an important milestone. For the first time, there will be more people of working age on the continent than dependents, like children and older people. That could lead to an explosion in economic growth.
Although there are many challenges facing Africa, Generation Beta has a lot to get excited about.