Many Africans enjoying higher levels of living
AFRICANS are seeing a steady improvement in the quality of their lives, with some countries even nearing world averages, says a wide-ranging report out yesterday on the continent’s future.
While large portions of the continent’s 1.2 billion people live in poverty, many of Africa’s 54 nations have made significant progress in health, education and standard of living.
“At least a third of African countries have now achieved medium to high levels of human development,” said the report published by the African Development Bank, referring to a composite measure of a nation’s condition.
“North Africa has the highest levels, approaching the world average, but all subregions have seen steady improvement” since the turn of the 21st century, it added.
Despite the advances, some 544 million Africans still live in poverty, according to the report titled African Economic Outlook 2017.
Rwanda recorded the most progress, followed by Ghana and Liberia in the fight against poverty since 2005. One of Rwanda’s key efforts was a community-based health insurance system that by 2010 had covered nearly nine in 10 of its people.
North African nations Egypt and Tunisia have health insurance systems that cover 78% and 100% respectively of their residents.
Spending on education, which is key for development, is above 6% of gross domestic product in South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Mozambique and Tunisia. While Nigeria puts less than 1% of its GDP into schooling.
Gender equality is on the rise in several nations – including Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda – where women “achieve almost equal levels of human development as men”.
East Africa is still Africa’s economic powerhouse, driven mostly by Ethiopia. — AFP