BuaNews (Tshwane)
Michael Appel
19 November 2007
analysis
In getting to grips with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and development indicators, South Africa's progress report in relation to the rest of its African neighbours has been released.
In the Africa Development Indicators 2007 report released by the World Bank on Wednesday, it was suggested that improving the well-being of Africans will require better economic policy and greater growth performance.
Chief Economist at the World Bank for the Africa Region, John Page, in his presentation of the indicators, explained that "average growth in the Sub-Saharan economies was 5.4 percent in 2005 and 2006. The consensus projection is 5.3 percent for 2007 and 5.4 percent for 2008."
Leading the way are the oil and mineral exporters thanks to high prices, but also 18 non-mineral economies, with more than a third of the Sub-Saharan African people, have also been doing well, he said.
Despite some fair overall growth, the report indicates that, "More than 40 percent of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa still live on less than $1 a day, life expectancy gains have stalled in some countries and retreated in others, and poor health and poor schooling hold back improvements in people's productivity - and the chances of meeting the MDGs.
"That is why it is essential to spread economic growth to all of Africa and so essential to sustain it, by avoiding the collapses that have erased past gains."
The MDGs are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges.
They are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted during the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.
Business environment indicators - which measure the ease with which someone can either open or do business with a country - show that in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2006, Madagascar was tops with 21 days to start a business and 10 procedures necessary to register it.
In Guinea-Bissau on the other hand, a person would have to undergo 17 procedures before registering a business, and endure the 233 day wait to start it.
South Africa had a 35 day wait to start a business, and 9 step procedure to register in 2006.
Walking hand-in-hand with business climate in a country is the amount of private and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in that country.
In this regard, Equatorial Guinea leads the pack with private investment of 27.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2005.
Equatorial Guinea's FDI for 2005 amounted to some $1.86 billion; however, oil giant Nigeria received FDI of $6.4 billion in the same year.
At the release of the report, analysts argued that FDI did not necessarily constitute an improvement in the lives of people, as the intended trickledown effect did not always materialise.
To illustrate this, Nigeria was the continent's greatest receiver of FDI in 2005, but it also had 70.8 percent of its population living on less than $1 a day in 2003.
Private investment in South Africa came in at 15.1 percent of GDP for 2005 and net FDI was worth $2.3 billion for the same year.
In terms of MDG 1 - the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger - it's worrying to note that the population figure of South Africans living on $1 a day has increased by 4.4 percent from 6.3 percent in 1995, to 10.7 percent in 2000.
As previously mentioned Nigeria has the largest proportion of its population living on $1 a day at 70.8 percent in 2003. Zambia, also with a significantly high figure went from 65.7 percent of its population on $1 a day in 1998 to 63.8 percent in 2004.
Zimbabwe's $1 a day figure was 56.1 percent of the population in 1996, and whilst the latest figure remains blank in the report, the record near 8 000 percent inflation rate in August 2007, does not lend kindly to a decrease in the $1 a day figure.
In terms of the prevalence of child malnutrition in children under the age of five, Africa's worst affected countries in 2000 were Burundi, Sudan and Niger with 45.1 percent, 40.7 percent, and 40.1 percent respectively.
While South Africa has no latest documented figure, the 1999 survey found 11.5 percent of children under the age of five were malnourished and underweight in the country.
The reports findings on MDG 4, which focuses on the reduction of child mortality, found that per 1 000 live births in 2005, 165 infants died in Sierra Leone, 154 died in Angola, 157 died in Liberia, and 150 died in Niger.
In comparing the 2000 and 2005 infant mortality figures for Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia and Niger, no noticeable improvements could be seen.
The infant mortality rate in South Africa increased steadily from 45 deaths per 1 000 live births in 1990, to 50 deaths in 2000, to 55 deaths in 2005.
The Development Indicators Mid-Term Review released by the Presidency in June this year, also noted that the "Maternal Mortality Ratio is increasing and has more than doubled between 1998 and 2003."
The prevalence of HIV and AIDS on the continent was also investigated by the 2007 report, due to its impact on a countries productivity and ultimate economic growth.
The worst affected country in Africa in 2005 was Swaziland, with 33.4 percent of its population between 15 and 49 years of age infected with HIV.
Botswana and Lesotho are second and third worst affected by HIV and AIDS, with 24.1 percent, and 23.2 percent of the population infected within the 15 to 49 age group.
South Africa had 18.8 percent within the same age group infected in 2005.
Globally, 12 000 people are infected daily by the HIV virus, 4.38 million are infected annually, and 8 000 die each day.
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