Program

Sub-Saharan Africa’s turnaround over the past couple of decades has been dramatic. After many years in decline, the continent’s economy picked up in the mid-1990s. Along with this macroeconomic growth, people became healthier, youngsters attended schools in much greater numbers, and the rate of extreme poverty declined from 54 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2015. The region had less conflict (although simmering in some countries and notwithstanding pressing numbers of displaced persons), an expansion of political and social freedoms, and progress towards gender equality. Yet, despite these accomplishments, the challenges are daunting. Economic growth has slowed in recent years. Poverty rates in many countries are the highest in the world. And notably, the number of poor in Africa is rising due to population growth. From a global perspective, there is a shifting concentration of poverty from South Asia to Africa.

Macroeconomic stability and growth are critical components for reducing poverty and improving well-being, but they are not sufficient. This talk will explore critical entry points and areas of policy focus to accelerate poverty reduction in Africa. The speaker looks beyond macroeconomic stability and growth to ask what more could be done and where policy makers should focus to speed up poverty reduction.

Speaker

Kathleen Beegle is a Lead Economist with the World Bank Gender Group, joining in 2018. She was previously a Human Development Program Leader for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, based in Accra, Ghana. Her research experience includes the study of poverty, labor, economic shocks, and methodological studies on household survey data collection in developing countries. She is the author, most recently, of Poverty in a Rising Africa and Realizing the Full Potential of Safety Nets in Africa. Full bio »

Additional Details

If you will be attending in Santa Monica, online registration is requested.

If you are located elsewhere, you can dial in to the talk at 1-800-747-5150 (passcode: 5288026#) and see the slides online at https://webmeetingext.rand.org/idss2017.