Africa is making progress, but the pace is still slow, says the 2009 MDGs Report

ECA Press Release No. 17/2009

Addis Ababa, 9 April 2009 – The 2009 Report on Assessing Progress towards Attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa’s region acknowledges progress on a few goals, including labour productivity, primary education enrolment and gender parity.

This Report, which is being reviewed this week in Addis Ababa by around 30 national experts, under the auspices of the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank, highlights the lack of convergence either in levels or rates of progress across the sub-regions.

For instance, “Labour productivity growth was positive across all regions….but it was not strong enough to accelerate progress towards full employment and to generate decent work” reads the Report.

Indicators that are used to assess progress also show that Africa’s region is on track to meet the primary education enrolment target, though primary completion objective will not be achieved at current rate of progress.

A significant progress is also being made on gender equality, which is apparent in the non-agricultural sector where women account for 80% of own-account, seasonal, part-time and informal work.

Some areas of serious concern have emerged in the 2009 MDGs Report. Although Africa is making progress in reducing adolescent births and antenatal care coverage, child and maternal mortality are still high, proclaims the report.

Even tough the proportion of population with access to safe drinking water is growing; it is mostly concentrated in urban areas.

On the poverty reduction front, it is anticipated that the current financial crisis is likely to erode progress made in some countries like Ghana in reducing poverty headcount. In addition, this adverse environment will have an impact on the delivery capacity of the global partnership for development, as evidenced by the inability of major OECD/DAC countries to reach the ODA ratio of 0.7% and the slow pace of WTO negotiations in the context of the Doha round.

Background

The Report on Assessing Progress towards Attaining the MDGs is a joint ECA/AU/ADB initiative. Its main objective is to serve as a reference point in policymaking, advocacy and resource allocation. The main findings of the 2009 Reports are based on 2006 data provided by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). The current expert review meeting is a follow-up of the Inter Agency Expert Group (IAEG) on MDG Indicators that took place October 2008. One of the results of the consultations of the IAEG stated that harmonization of reporting was necessary in order to monitor MDGs at a level other than national so that the data would be comparable across countries.

The outcomes of this experts review meeting will be submitted for consideration to African leaders, during the next AU Summit in June 2009.

Issued by ECA, AU and AfDB
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