ECA boss lists paths to fighting poverty in Africa

Africa must lead the charge in mobilising domestic resources to recover from multiple economic and social crises, which have deepened poverty and widened inequality on the continent, says acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Antonio Pedro.

Pedro, who made the call in a statement, also warned that Africa risks missing the Sustainable Development Goals. Pedro was addressing participants at the 41st meeting of the Committee of Experts, ahead of Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, holding in Addis Ababa. The ECA chief reminded the participants that Africa currently leads in global poverty. He cautioned that without bold financial and climate action, Africa would be locked into a poverty trap.

“With more than half of the world’s poor – 54.8 per cent in 2022 being in Africa, the continent had overtaken South Asia with 37.6 per cent.

“COVID-19 outbreak had pushed 62 million people into poverty in just one year, with an additional 18 million estimated to have joined their ranks by the end of 2022.

“As many as 149 million non-poor remain at high risk of falling into poverty,” he said.

Pedro noted that 695 million people in Africa were either poor or face the risk of falling into poverty.

“Women and girls remain particularly vulnerable, and we are facing a potential reversal of the hard-won gains made on gender equity. Africa cannot just stay the course and hope that it gets better. It must lead the charge,” Pedro said.

He said the challenges were, however, not insurmountable if Africa could implement systemic change and build resilient and sustainable systems, shifting away from a primary focus on efficiency that had dominated past decades.

Pedro said investments in sustainable building up capital in critical assets, including human, infrastructure and natural resources were needed to provide an environment that could facilitate achieving the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.

“Therefore, governments must design strategies that simultaneously integrate economic, social and environmental objectives.

“First, we need to finance our development,”Perdo said.