Is Africa on track to ending poverty by 2030?

Abstract

Progress in poverty reduction has been slow for the Sub-Saharan Africa region which faces serious challenges in addressing inclusive growth. This study assesses the income growth requirements to achieve the sustainable development goals on poverty for given income inequality performances in African countries. The assessment is based on a microeconomic approach and survey data for the countries. Results reveal that, given their current income growth and inequality performances, more than half (55%) of the African countries are off track to halving poverty between 2015 and 2030. Therefore, under the current inequality reduction performances, African countries should strive to deliver higher income growth results, above 6% annual gross domestic product on average, to be on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals target of halving poverty between 2015 and 2030.