The World Bank said in a report released on Friday 16th October 2015 has indicated that a rapid rise in population has led to an increase in the overall number of the poor in Africa.
However the report further said, “Africa’s strong economic growth has contributed to improving people’s health and education in the past 20 years as well as major reductions in poverty in several countries”.
The report, titled “Poverty in a Rising Africa”, estimates that 388 million people – or 43 percent of all people living in Sub-Saharan Africa – lived in extreme poverty in 2012, a decrease of five million people from 2011.
In a separate report, the Global Monitoring Report, released earlier in October, the World Bank projected that 347 million people are living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa this year 2015. While the percentage of Africans living in poverty has decreased over time, the sheer numbers have grown. An estimated 284 million Africans lived in poverty in 1990.
The report called for much better measurement of poverty, saying that data gaps make it extremely difficult for policy makers to target programs for the poor.
The report said that the progress in ending poverty in all its forms has varied greatly across countries and population groups, with the levels of achievement remaining enchantingly low. Jim
Yong Kim, World Bank Group President said, “Africa’s economy is on the increase, but to avoid bypassing vulnerable people – whether in rural areas or in fragile states – we must improve how we measure human progress. Better data will tell us whether we’re delivering effective programs that will help end extreme poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity among the poorest,” .
Africa posted the slowest rate of poverty reduction of all major developing regions, with the share of people living in extreme poverty (less than $1.9 a day) declining only slightly, from 56 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2012. But since 2012, extreme poverty fell to a projected 35 percent in 2015 in the region, based on the World Bank’s new poverty line of $1.9 a day.
Globally, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty is likely fall to under 10 percent for the first time, to 9.6 percent this year, according to Bank estimates released earlier this month.