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Africa's education hurdle: youth not in employment, education or training (NEET)
Education and training not keeping up with the task While Africa has the youngest population in the world, the continent's level of education and training lies far below the global average. Globally, Afghanistan has the highest share of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET). At 43.9% Somalia has the largest share of NEET youth… Read more, As a percentage of GDP between 2011 and 2020, the gap between the highest and lowest spending African countries on education has shrunk by barely 1%. Africa has the lowest education spending per capita globally, meaning that investment in education is not matching demographic trends on the continent. Furthermore, along with Latin America and the… Read more, Expected years of schooling in Africa are the lowest globally According to the latest available figures in Africa (2010-2020): At the primary level, completion rates are 62.5% in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 86.4% in the world. At lower secondary level, completion rates are 43.8% in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 75.9% in… Read more, At primary level, the average out-of-school rates are 20.5% in sub- Saharan Africa compared to 9.4% globally. At lower secondary level, the average out-of-school rates are 34.0% in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 14.4% globally. At upper secondary level, out-of-school rates are 47.5% in sub- Saharan Africa compared to 30.9%… Read more, A challenging skills mismatch According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), countries in sub-Saharan Africa are severely affected by qualifications and skills mismatches, making it hard for employers to find suitable job applicants. Most countries experience vertical mismatches where workers do not have the… Read more
New report: The power of data for governance
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has launched in Accra, Ghana the 2023 IIAG Series Report, The power of data for governance: closing data gaps to accelerate Africa's transformation. The report draws insights from the 2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) dataset and highlights a positive correlation between access to high-… Read more, Why this report is relevant: Data is vital for Africa's governance and development agendas, and the report underscores its role in driving progress, assessing government performance, setting policy priorities, and ensuring trust in governments. to learn more, download the press release and report via the links below.
2024 elections in Africa: 180 million people are eligible to vote
The 17 countries undergoing elections in Africa in the course of 2024 have a combined population of around 310 million, of which 58% – or over 180 million people – will be eligible to vote. Mauritius has the highest percentage of the population eligible to vote (80%). In Chad and Mali, less than 50% of the population will be eligible to vote, due… Read more, Proof of identity could exclude around 60 million from the vote Despite the combined eligibility being so high, it is unlikely all these will be able to vote, as this is will heavily depend on the ability of people to register to vote. In Africa, approximately 500 million people do not have proof of identity, equivalent to one-third of the… Read more, The issue of access to polling stations was also seen in the most recent election in Nigeria in 2023. According to Reuters, electoral officers reported that the difficult security situation on the ground left nearly 1/5th of the northern Zamfara state’s polling stations unreachable, a station that alone would have served over 250,000 people. , DRC polling station uncertainty In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which held elections in December of 2023, observers sounded the alarm on logistical setbacks including the delayed opening of polling stations, security risks and malfunctioning electronic systems. Data showed that 27% of polling stations across the DRC did not open and 45% of… Read more, In the 2023 DRC election, 27% of polling stations did not open and 45% of voting machines malfunctioned. Africa has the costliest elections globally Africa has the costliest elections, between 2000 and 2018, Sub-Saharan Africa spent nearly $44.3 billion on elections. Within this same period, the electoral cost per capita in Africa was… Read more, Malian MPs spend more than Malians' monthly income In 2019, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy found that in Mali members of parliament spent around 54,000 euros on a round of presidential and legislative elections, while the average monthly salary for Malians is under 100 euros per month. Furthermore, it was shown that 28% of… Read more, Despite having the costliest elections of any other region, African citizens continue to face issues with voting operations, voter registration and safe access to polling stations. There is also dependency on international partners to facilitate elections: the US pledged $165 million towards the end of 2022 to six election countries including… Read more
Agenda 2063 & the SDGs offer clear roadmap for aligning COVID-19 recovery
Africa’s development path for the decades to come is guided by two main agendas: the African Union’s Agenda 2063 with its seven Aspirations and the United Nations’ (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The health, social and economic crises triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa have put on hold progress towards both agendas… Read more, COVID-19 derailed progress and exacerbated pre-existing challenges The 2020 Africa SDG Index reveals that some negative impact of COVID-19 is expected on 16 of the 17 Goals and knock-on effects might be seen across the range of SDGs due their interlinkages. The 2021 Ibrahim Forum Report, assessing the impact of… Read more, Setbacks in gender equality (SDG5 & Aspiration 6) The pandemic is threatening recent progress in gender equality, with severe consequences on women’s health as well as their economic and social wellbeing. The impact of COVID-19 risks widening the gender gap in education as girls and young women are at a higher risk of… Read more
Africa's vaccine inequity
According to data collected by Bloomberg, more than 3.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across 180 countries as of 15 July 2021. While enough doses have now been administered to fully vaccinate 23% of the global population, disparities in access are stark. On average, those countries and regions with the highest incomes… Read more, Africa remains the least vaccinated region in the world, with only 1.1% of the population fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, the third wave is in full swing on the African continent: infections are now rising by 25% every week and the first week of July was Africa’s worst since the beginning of the pandemic. In this context, the slow rollout of… Read more, Unpacking COVID-19 vaccine rollout in absolute numbers Globally, the five countries that have administered the most COVID-19 vaccine doses in absolute terms are China (1,402.0 million doses, enough to cover 50.1% of its population), India (391.1 million doses, enough to cover 14.3% of its population), USA (335.5 million doses, enough… Read more, Research by The Economist Intelligence Unit shows that there may still be a long way to go for African countries to achieve the so-called ‘herd immunity’ and substantially slow the spread of the disease. While richer countries are expected to have completed the vaccination of their entire populations by March 2022, the majority… Read more
COVID-19 and Africa’s governance
On 15 July, 23 African leaders met in Abidjan and called for a $100 billion replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the development lenders fund for the world’s poorest countries. This would represent the IDA’s largest-ever replenishment. Their call came as governments across Africa are reeling from the… Read more, Short-term relief: liquidity is the priority In the short-term there is a pressing need for immediately accessible finance (liquidity), that will give governments the fiscal space to direct funds towards areas essential for the COVID response such as health systems and social safety nets. Some support has already been provided. IMF lending to… Read more
