The key to turning around Africa’s extreme poverty problem could be better governance‚ ahead of tackling communicable diseases and improving sanitation.
This is according to a research paper‚ titled Unlocking Africa’s potential: The relationship between effective governance and poverty‚ launched by the Institute of Security Studies on Wednesday in Pretoria.
The paper’s authors Ciara Aucoin and Zachary Donnenfeld found that upping effective governance in Africa just modestly could lift at least 60 million people out of poverty by 2050.
“Improving governance has a profound effect on one of the continent’s gravest challenges: extreme poverty‚” it says.
Sub-Saharan Africa is currently home to more people living in extreme poverty than any other region in the world.
The research compared the impact of effective governance‚ the improvement of access to universal sanitation and the elimination of communicable diseases‚ to see which had the greatest impact in reducing poverty.
Of these interventions effective governance came out on top.
The paper uses US$1.90 (R27) per person per day as the level of income necessary to maintain a minimum level of human decency to define poverty.
Under the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development‚ formalised in September 2015‚ sustainable development goal 16 seeks to‚ “promote peaceful and inclusive societies‚” and to‚ “build effective‚ accountable and transparent institutions at all levels‚” as a route to good governance.
In light of this‚ Aucoin and Donnenfeld assess the impact of better governance on poverty reduction using two scenarios.
The first is the Current Path model‚ showing the poverty levels in Africa if governance continues as is. The second is the Unlocking the Future model‚ showing what would happen to poverty in Africa if governments performed at the level of the continent’s five best-performing governments in 2015.
Their forecasting found the following:
· On the Current Path‚ poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa will account for 65% of extreme global poverty in 2030‚ up from 45% in 2015.
· In the Unlocking the Future scenario‚ progress towards effective governance in Africa lifts more than 60 million people out of poverty by 2050.
· Providing universal access to sanitation only reduces the number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa by about 36-million by 2050‚ relative to the Current Path scenario.
· In low-poverty African countries four million fewer people will live in extreme poverty by 2050 with better governance.
· In 2050 high and medium poverty groups could have a combined GDP of US$1.1 trillion higher in the Unlocking the Future scenario‚ compared with the Current Path.
· Infant mortality in Africa could drop by almost 2 deaths per thousand by 2050 with improved governance.
Better governance key to beating poverty in Africa‚ study finds
The key to turning around Africa’s extreme poverty problem could be better governance‚ ahead of tackling communicable diseases and improving sanitation.
This is according to a research paper‚ titled Unlocking Africa’s potential: The relationship between effective governance and poverty‚ launched by the Institute of Security Studies on Wednesday in Pretoria.
The paper’s authors Ciara Aucoin and Zachary Donnenfeld found that upping effective governance in Africa just modestly could lift at least 60 million people out of poverty by 2050.
“Improving governance has a profound effect on one of the continent’s gravest challenges: extreme poverty‚” it says.
Sub-Saharan Africa is currently home to more people living in extreme poverty than any other region in the world.
The research compared the impact of effective governance‚ the improvement of access to universal sanitation and the elimination of communicable diseases‚ to see which had the greatest impact in reducing poverty.
Of these interventions effective governance came out on top.
The paper uses US$1.90 (R27) per person per day as the level of income necessary to maintain a minimum level of human decency to define poverty.
Under the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development‚ formalised in September 2015‚ sustainable development goal 16 seeks to‚ “promote peaceful and inclusive societies‚” and to‚ “build effective‚ accountable and transparent institutions at all levels‚” as a route to good governance.
In light of this‚ Aucoin and Donnenfeld assess the impact of better governance on poverty reduction using two scenarios.
The first is the Current Path model‚ showing the poverty levels in Africa if governance continues as is. The second is the Unlocking the Future model‚ showing what would happen to poverty in Africa if governments performed at the level of the continent’s five best-performing governments in 2015.
Their forecasting found the following:
· On the Current Path‚ poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa will account for 65% of extreme global poverty in 2030‚ up from 45% in 2015.
· In the Unlocking the Future scenario‚ progress towards effective governance in Africa lifts more than 60 million people out of poverty by 2050.
· Providing universal access to sanitation only reduces the number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa by about 36-million by 2050‚ relative to the Current Path scenario.
· In low-poverty African countries four million fewer people will live in extreme poverty by 2050 with better governance.
· In 2050 high and medium poverty groups could have a combined GDP of US$1.1 trillion higher in the Unlocking the Future scenario‚ compared with the Current Path.
· Infant mortality in Africa could drop by almost 2 deaths per thousand by 2050 with improved governance.
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