Net aid to Sub-Saharan African countries rose about 40 percent in 2003 – five percentage points higher than in 2002 - and the continent received greater debt relief over the same period, according to the annual World Bank publication, African Development Indicators (ADI) 2005, launched today.
There is no question that there is an enormous, compelling moral urgency to the conditions of Africa and there is no question that there are needs. But there is a lot more going on than just need. Africa may be on the verge of being a continent of hope,"said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.
The region’s economic growth accelerated to 3.9 percent in 2003, up from 3.4 percent in 2002, the report says. According to ADI 2005, the gross domestic product (GDP) in fifteen Sub-Saharan African countries has grown consistently at a rate of over five percent a year since the mid-1990s and several countries increased exports by more than 10 percent.
However, the report warns that civil wars, the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, corruption, anemic aid and foreign direct investments, as well as weak commodity prices, threaten recent gains in overall poverty alleviation. It recommends broader and faster progress and a sharpened focus on economic growth to help African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"A strategy of shared growth that invests in the poor to help them to contribute to and benefit from the growth process is needed",said John Page, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for the Africa Region/.
Gross enrollment in primary schools – a standard indicator of investment in the poor -- recovered to 96 percent in 2003, up from 87 percent in 2002 and 80 percent in 1980. The increase contributed to a drop in illiteracy rates from 42 percent in 1997 to 35 percent in 2002. Access to electronic media widened across the continent with the number of computers per thousand people rising more than 30 percent in 2003 compared to 2000.
ADI 2005 data stresses the need for rich nations to urgently deliver on their promises of more generous aid, deeper debt relief and wider trade opportunities for Africa if we are to see the continent achieve meaningful progress toward the MDGs", said Gobind Nankani, World Bank Vice-President for the Africa Region.
The publication shows that on average, investment and trade trends remained steady, with a slight increase in the overall current account deficit.
Merchandise exports from Africa rose to US$121.5 million in 2003 compared to US$97 million in 2002, but agricultural products (coffee, cocoa, cotton, tea, groundnuts), which employ 70 percent of Africa’s labor force and account for 40 percent of its exports, either slipped or rose marginally.
Exports of manufactured goods rose 8.7 percent to US$29.7 billion in value in 2003, far above the US$6.2 billion such exports earned in 1980, illustrating that the African continent that is shifting from agriculture to industries. The biggest trade gains over the period 1994 to 2003 were made by Angola (15 percent), Equatorial Guinea (12.5 percent), Nigeria and Congo (8 percent each), and Côte d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of Congo (6 percent each). The main trade losses were registered by Senegal (-5 percent), Malawi, Sudan and Burundi (-4 percent each) and Niger and Guinea-Bissau (-3 percent).
The report notes that the region’s total external debt rose to US$218 billion in 2003 compared to US$204 billion in 2002 even as 23 countries obtained total debt service relief worth about US$43 billion. ADI notes that the deeper debt relief obtained came at a time when "pro-poor expenditures had begun to increase in most of the countries."
In addition, of a total US$135 billion in foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2003, net FDI flows to Africa nosedived by more than 100 percent compared to 2001 (when it was US$19.1 billion) to US$9 billion in 2003. Net FDI flows to the continent totaled US$10.2 billion in 2002.
"ADI 2005, which holds data on the latest social and economic conditions in Africa, is one of the most detailed sources of research on the continent," says Gerard Byam, Director, Operational Quality and Knowledge Services of the World Bank. Mr. Byam hopes that the publication will help "meet the development community’s information needs on Africa."
The report depicts a diverse continent, with several countries making remarkable progress, some stagnating and others lagging seriously behind. In Sierra Leone, for example, nearly three children in ten die before the age of five (284 per 1,000 births) whereas this is true for 15 per 1,000 births in Seychelles. It takes six percent of GNI per capita to start a business in Zambia and 19 percent to start one in Chad. Liberia has three phone lines per 1,000 inhabitants, while Seychelles has 83 lines per 100 inhabitants. Zimbabwe literacy rate is 90 percent; Niger’s is a low 17 percent. A safe source of water is available to 22 percent of Ethiopians; 99 percent of Mauritians have access. Mali has 49.1 percent of its 10-14 year olds working; South Africa has zero percent. GNI is lowest in Ethiopia and Burundi (US$90) and highest in Seychelles (US$7,350).
Drawn from the World Bank Africa Database, the book and a companion CD-ROM, Africa Development Indicators 2005, provide the most detailed collection of development data on Africa in one volume of 17 chapters covering the period 1980-2003. The data is drawn all 53 African countries and 20 regional country groups, arranged in separate tables or matrices for more than 500 development indicators. The CD-ROM provides additional data. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction on the nature of the data and their limitations, followed by a set of statistical tables, charts, and technical notes that define the indicators and identify their specific source.