After 2015 Agenda for Africa
Why development should be seen from
individual persons perspective
Yehualashet Mekonen
Coordinator, Information and Statistics
The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)
23rd June 2009, Brussels

The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)
 An independent pan-African policy and advocacy
centre on child rights and wellbeing.
 Mission: to put children in Africa at the centre of
public and political agenda
 It also aims to contribute to:
Knowledge generation
Identifying policy options
 Strengthening the capacity of NGOs, GOs

The African Report on Child Wellbeing
Ranking based on the Child-
friendliness Index
An African voice for children
Rich in information and
analysis
Policy recommendations
www.africanchildforum.org

Human Development in Africa
 Expanding people’s choice
 Ensuring people’s enjoyment of their civil and political rights
 Two sets of initiatives:
 Initiatives by Africa
 Programmes initiated for Africa
 Initiatives by Africa
 Were opposed and not supported
 Based on the principles– self-reliance, self-sustainment and
socio-economic transformation

Human Development in Africa…
 Development programmes initiated for Africa:
Prescriptions by the global financial
institutions
 The infamous structural adjustment
Poverty was highly rampant

The Millennium Declaration and Goals
 Africa’s special need recognised
 Pledge to support for poverty eradication and
sustainable development
 Bringing Africa into the world economy
 Key role in monitoring development
 A framework for international development
cooperation

Current Status of Poverty in Africa
 Poverty remains generally high in Africa
 the proportion of the poor in Africa is in the
range of 50 – 60 percent
 A slight decline in the last few years (prior the
food crisis)

People in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than
$1.25 a day (2005 PPP) by year
People in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than
$1.25 a day (2005 PPP) by year
60
380
58 Share of the
Share of population (%)
population (%)
Number (millions)
56 Number of people
(millions)
54 330
52
50 280
1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005
Year

Current Status of Poverty in Africa…
Increase in the absolute number of people
living in poverty
 Child poverty is very serious concern
Incidence of poverty higher among children
than adults
 In Ethiopia: child poverty was 3
percentage-points higher in 2004/2005.

Current Status of Poverty in Africa…
Nutrition
Underweight among children under-five is
estimated 28 percent in SSA (2007)
It was 31 percent around 2000
The actual number of children who suffer
from malnutrition increased by 12 percent.
It was nearly 32 million in 2000
Increased to 36 million in 2007

Increase in the number of underweight children
Increase in the number of underweight children
30
20
Chad
In absolute number
Eritrea
In percentage
Niger
10
SSA
Ethiopia
0
-10

Impact of climate change in Africa
 Shrinking lakes and
reduction in reserviors
 Shortage of water
 Recurrent drought due to
erratic rain
 Vulnerability to food
security

Access to Education
 Investing in human capital is critical for economic growth and
poverty reduction
 Access to primary and secondary
 Encouraging developments
 All except sub-Saharan Africa will meet the goal: universal
primary enrolment
 Net enrolment ratio reached 71 percent in sub-Saharan Africa

Pupil-to-teacher ratio in countries with high net
enrolment rate (90+) for 2006
Rwanda 69
Madagascar 49
Sao Tome and Principe 31
Mauritius 22
Seychelles 12
World 25
Sub-Saharan Africa 45
0 20 40 60 80

Quality of Education
 Survival rate to last primary grade lower
 Low quality of education hurts the poor
 Preoccupation with primary education
Secondary enrolment (net)
Female - 24%
Male – 28%
 The need to emphasis on secondary and tertiary
education
 Improving quality at all levels

Agenda for 2015
 No more universal targets
 Qualifying indicators on quality
 Population dynamics
 Long-term capacity building programmes on:
 Science
Technology
 Policy space

Thank you