Thursday, February 19, 2015

Millennium Development Goal To Fail


African countries are unlikely to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 as envisaged by the UN's "Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs) and the African Union's "Agenda 2063" development plan, according to an African think tank.

Jakkie Cilliers, executive director of the Institute for Security Studies, told The Anadolu Agency
that the "extreme poverty" line had been set by the World Bank at $1.75 a day, while the "severe poverty" line had been set at less than $1 a day. "According to the MDGs, we're supposed to eradicate extreme poverty by 15 percent by 2030 and severe poverty by 4 percent by 2045," Cilliers said. "But according to our report," he added, "it's unlikely that any African state will beat that time frame. Even if African countries adopt very aggressive pro-poor policy interventions, to expect… to get below 15 percent by 2030 and below 4 percent by 2045 is not realistic," Cilliers said.


The Pretoria-based think tank issued its annual report on poverty in Africa, which relies on the latest World Bank data. Cilliers said poverty was endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. According to Cilliers, Kenya currently has around 18 million people living below the "extreme poverty" line ($1.75 a day). He added: "Public education in Kenya is poor; the government needs to invest in that. It also needs to raise the education level of all Kenyans – not only the elite."

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