Økonomisk vækst hjælper ikke nødvendigvis Afrikas fattigste.
African economies are among the world’s fastest-growing but leaps (hop) in output have not been a silver bullet (patentløsning) for better living standards, delegates at the World Economic Forum (WEF) said Thursday.
Some African countries had shown massive spurts (fremgange) in growth but had failed to address anti-poverty needs, like basic housing, water and health, said activist Graca Machel who urged that growth and development go hand in hand.
– In terms of growth, they have made a huge leap ahead, but look at the social indicators – they are among the worst. So growth alone is not a response, said Machel whose husband is South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
Africa’s economies may be growing but former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel said Thursday there is still too much dependence on the export of raw materials and not enough trade happening between countries.
In an assessment released Thursday in Cape Town at the WEF conference on Africa, Annan’s panel calls the growth “low quality”.
The panel, which includes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, musician and activist Bob Geldof and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, called on African leaders to ensure growth does not “remain inequitable (ulige), jobless, volatile and largely inadequate.
– The poor quality of leadership in Africa risks squandering (formøble) the continent’s rapid economic growth, Annan warned.
He said a “leadership deficit” (underskud) meant little was being done to create jobs and lift millions out of poverty. Annan lamented (beklagede) that leaders failed to develop their economies by harnessing resources to deepen trade between African nations and said economic growth must lead to new jobs for young people.
Og dog: ÉN UD AF 3 AFRIKANERE TILHØRER NU MIDDELKLASSEN, siger rapport
One in three Africans is middle class – a rising group of consumers to rival those of China and India, researchers have found.
Record numbers of people in Africa own houses and cars, use mobile phones and the internet and send their children to private schools and foreign universities, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
AfDB Chief Economist Mthuli Ncube said the findings should challenge long-held perceptions of Africa as a continent of famine, poverty and hopelessness.
Ncube described the rise as “phenomenal” as the middle class stood at 135 million people in 1990, then rose to about 200 million in 2000, until it reached its present level og 300 million people. – It is rising faster than Africa’s population growth, which is growing at about 2,6 percent per annum, he noted.
Ncube said the rising middle class was characterized by being entrepreneurial in nature, often owned their own home and cars, were spending more on imported goods and services, and were inclined to send their children to private schools and universities often outside their home countries.
He said many of the middle-class lived outside their countries of origin and often sent money home to support relatives who may still be considered poor.
Foreign investors and donors needed to work with members of this class to create new partnerships for development and it should be fostered by policy makers, the AfDB’s report called “The Middle of the Pyramid: Dynamics of the Middle Class in Africa”, said.
The size of the African middle class is still relatively small as a percentage of the total population compared with advanced economies where this figure is about 80 percent, but trend analyses of the Bank indicated that it would catch up by about 2050 as the population moved from rural to urban areas.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
