Macky Sall, Adesina, others fear 39m Africans will slip into extreme poverty by year-end

As the continent’s most vulnerable communities confront the triple challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, and climate change, experts have expressed fears that at least 39 million people in African would slip into extreme poverty by the end of 2021.

Similarly, the experts disclosed that countries are facing higher fiscal costs, reducing capacity for critical investments required to deliver on ambitions such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

They stated these at the ongoing Africa Resilience Forum, a flagship event of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which commenced on Tuesday.

The event brought together key stakeholders across government, civil society, private sector, and international partners, to reflect on the continent’s conflict prevention, peace, and state-building initiatives.

The Senegalese President, Macky Sall, who spoke on crisis management, said the country adopted a legal framework that provides for flexible and secure public-private partnerships.

READ ALSO: How Nigeria can lift 100m people out of poverty in ten years —Osinbajo

Sall, who was represented at the forum by Senegal’s Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation, Amadou Hott, said the crisis reminded the country of the need to reorganise its priorities, strengthen the social protection of the populations and establish a more endogenous development.

In his remarks, the AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, said across Africa, rising expenditures on defence and security had increasingly displaced development financing on essential services such as education, health, water, sanitation, and affordable housing.

He said: “The hydra-headed challenges of this pandemic, insecurity, and climate change, continue to impact young men, women, and children the most.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now