To accelerate their demographic transition, sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries must trigger significant and rapid fertility declines. These fertility declines will open a demographic window of opportunity and enable countries to capture a first demographic dividend. Despite some successes, many programs aimed at decreasing fertility in SSA have yielded disappointing results. This commentary argues that better integrated policies will help to accelerate fertility declines in SSA. Such an approach should harness the synergies between a set of four key policy levers: women's empowerment; female education; family planning, reproductive health services, and universal health coverage; and legal reforms. These policy levers should be coupled with renewed commitment from leaders on the continent and increased investments in both family planning and population institutions. By concomitantly investing in these priorities and harnessing the synergies of these policy levers, countries in SSA have a critical opportunity to accelerate their demographic transition, which could help them reach emerging economy status.

中文翻译：

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呼吁采取更好的综合政策以加速撒哈拉以南非洲的生育率下降。

为了加速其人口转型，撒哈拉以南非洲 (SSA) 国家必须引发显着且快速的生育率下降。这些生育率下降将打开人口机会之窗，并使各国能够获得第一次人口红利。尽管取得了一些成功，但许多旨在降低 SSA 生育率的计划却产生了令人失望的结果。该评论认为，更好的综合政策将有助于加速 SSA 的生育率下降。这种方法应利用四个关键政策杠杆之间的协同作用：妇女赋权；女性教育；计划生育、生殖健康服务和全民健康覆盖；和法律改革。这些政策杠杆应与非洲大陆领导人的新承诺相结合，并增加对计划生育和人口机构的投资。通过同时投资于这些优先事项并利用这些政策杠杆的协同作用，SSA 国家有一个重要的机会来加速其人口转型，这可以帮助他们达到新兴经济体的地位。