Sida Development Talks - Africa rising? Poverty and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

READ MORE ON SIDA'S EVENT  PAGE

On 22 April 2016 UNU-WIDER visits the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to launch the new open access book Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Resulting from UNU-WIDER’s project on ’Reconciling Africa’s growth, poverty and inequality trends: growth and poverty’— the book provides a comprehensive re-examination of Africa’s growth, poverty and inequality trends. While the economic growth renaissance in sub-Saharan Africa is widely recognized, much less is known about progress in living conditions. This book comprehensively evaluates trends in living conditions in 16 major sub-Saharan African countries, corresponding to nearly 75% of the total population.

A presentation on the main findings of the book will be given by UNU-WIDER Director Finn Tarp and Professor Andy McKay. While monetary indicators improved in many countries, others are yet to succeed in channeling the benefits of economic growth into the pockets of the poor. Some countries experienced little economic growth and saw little material progress for the poor. At the same time, the large majority of countries have made impressive progress in key non-monetary indicators of wellbeing.

Overall, the African growth renaissance earns two cheers, but not three. While gains in macroeconomic and political stability are real, they are also fragile. Growth on a per capita basis is much better than in the 1980s and 1990s, yet not rapid compared with other developing regions. Importantly from a pan-African perspective, key economies—particularly Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa—are not among the better performers.

Programme