CONTEXTE GÉNÉRAL • Geographic Context Ivory Coast is located in sub-Saharan Africa between 4 ° 30 'and 4 ° 10' North latitude and its land area is 322,462 square kilometers. It is bordered in the south by the Atlantic Ocean, in the east by Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali in the north, and Guinea and Liberia in the west. The city of Yamoussoukro is the political capital of the country and the city of Abidjan is the economic capital. The relatively flat land consists of valleys in the south, gradually elevated plateau at the Centre and in the north and mountains in the west whose highest point is Mount Nimba (1753 metres). • Demographic context A predominantly young Ivorian population The structure of the population has a regular pyramid shape with a broader base and a slimmer top, which reflects the image of developing countries. Such structure is that of a predominantly young population with high fertility and with a high mortality rate at older age. Indeed, 34.9% of this population is under age 15 and 55.9% under 25 and the average age of the population is 24.3 years (24.5 years for men and 24 years for women). One Ivorian person out two lives in urban areas The distribution of population according to place of residence reveals an urbanization rate of 50.9%. In other words, over 50% of the population lives in urban areas in Côte d'Ivoire. It has been observed and the urbanization rate has increased since it was 46% in 1998. According to age groups, we see that people aged below 14 and those aged 65 and above have a strong presence in rural areas unlike most economically active populations that are found mostly in urban areas. This seems to reflect the consequences of the rural exodus which contributes to the impoverishment of rural areas. Despite all, this reflects the pre-existence, regional development disparities which is more beneficial to with urban areas. . Figure 1: Evolution of the age structure between 2002 and 2012 RAPPORT INITIAL SUR LA MISE EN OEUVRE DE LA CHARTE AFRICAINE DES DROITS ET DU BIEN ÊTRE DE L'ENFANT 9