Background: The African Union (AU) and its member states through the Assembly Decision (Assembly/AU/Dec.601 (XXVI) agreed to devote the AU theme for 2017 to 'Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth'. This is a successful culmination of efforts by stakeholders in the development arena in Africa to re-position population to the centre of development planning and processes at the highest levels of decision making. We at the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), have been at the heart of these efforts.

Objectives: We document how alongside advocacy, we have approached evidence generation and synthesis on the potential of African countries to harness the demographic dividend to galvanise political commitment to integrating population dynamics as as a significant pillar for development planning.

Methods: We draw on our experience between 2013 and 2017 conducting studies, policy engagements and advocacy on the demographic dividend in 13 African countries; and, regional and international forums as case studies on how we can draw on various tools and strategies for successful engagements with policy and practice. In particular, we utilise participant observation and critical reflections to document the ecosystem of evidence synthesis and uptake that has facilitated the traction that the demographic-dividend paradigm has gained among political leadership and decision makers in the quest for sustainable development.

Results: Our findings have enabled us develop a 4-stage conceptual toolkit (Figure 1) for practitioners to make evidence matter in decision making. We find that evidence-generation and scenario-modelling tools such as the DemDiv model and the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology were crucial in the development of compelling communication and advocacy products on the demographic dividend that captured the imagination of decision makers in Africa to propel the paradigm to the top of the development agenda.

Conclusion: A combination of evidence generation, synthesis and advocacy have been crucial in re-positioning population dynamics to the centre of development policy and action in Africa.