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Working Paper 223 - Eliminating Extreme Poverty in Africa: Trends, Policies and the Role of International Organizations

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Abstract

Eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030, measured by people living on $1.25 a day, is the first goal among the UN Sustainable Development Goals expected to guide the post-2015 development agenda. This paper summarizes several studies on eradicating poverty globally and examines feasibility of this goal for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the world’s poorest but rapidly rising region. It finds that under plausible assumptions extreme poverty will not be eradicated in SSA by 2030, but it can be reduced to low levels. National and regional policies should aim at accelerating growth, while making it more inclusive and ‘green’. International organizations, including informal ones such as the G20, can play a critical role in this endeavor by encouraging policy coordination and coherence. Further, African countries will need a greater scope for bringing their perspectives into global economic debates on issues impacting sustainable development on the continent.

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  • Zorobabel Bicaba & Zuzana Brixiova & Mthuli Ncube, 2015. "Working Paper 223 - Eliminating Extreme Poverty in Africa: Trends, Policies and the Role of International Organizations," Working Paper Series 2163, African Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:adb:adbwps:2163
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