Inclusive Growth, Health Foreign Aid and Health Outcomes in Africa

Abstract

"Inclusive growth has been thought of as growth that promotes development, with development understood as comprehensive improvements in multiple dimensions contemplating both living conditions and empowerment. Although what exactly the concept means and how best to measure it has been a subject of much controversy among scholars and development experts, there is a consensus that inclusive growth should reduce poverty and inequality, two of the most prominent ailments that African countries need to grapple with. Unfortunately, efforts aimed at accelerating growth and reducing poverty and inequality in many African countries has not yielded the desired results. No doubt, overall GDP growth rate, driven by surging commodity prices and, perhaps, improvements in economic policy, improved significantly in the period before the global financial crisis averaging about 5.6 per cent a year between 2002 and 2008. Hit by the global financial crisis and steep rise in fuel and food prices, growth declined to about 2.2 per cent in 2009 but immediately recovered at 4.6 per cent in 2010. The uncertainties in North Africa caused growth to dip in 2011 but immediately rebounded in 2012 when a growth rate of 5.0 per cent was recorded. Between 2000 and 2010, six of the ten fastest-growing countries in the world were African-Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Chad and Rwanda. Progress on the MDGs has been rapid and a few of the countries is likely to reach some of the goals by 2015 or immediately after. However, impressive as the recent growth performance may appear, the rates are inadequate and very much below the 7-8 per cent required to halve poverty by 2015."