OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA HARNESSING ON THE SDGS Pt1

According to Bill Gates’ speech on the Third Wave of Poverty Reduction during the Goalkeepers 2018 event, the first and second waves of poverty reduction have occurred in China and India respectively. However, as poverty reduced in these areas, it quadrupled significantly in Africa. Accompanying high poverty in Africa is the low level of human development. Bill stated that China and India were able to tackle this, and today, more than half of citizens in those countries have passed through the walls of at least a secondary school, with quite a number enrolled in college. This is an aspect where Africa is still grappling with, despite the youth boom in the continent.

It is in light of the aforementioned that more than 50% of Africa’s populations are youths and the economic development and growth of the continent rises and falls at their feet. The most foreseeable source or opportunity for development in Africa is by investing in the human development of African youths who are at the prime of their lives, equipping them to be economically active by leveraging on their skills to yield monetary returns and thus, contribute to economic development and growth in Africa. At this point, Goal 3: Good Health and Goal 4: Quality Education comes in, as they are the key indicators for measuring human development.

On health, the African governments are to invest in tackling pervasive illnesses and diseases in the continent, such as HIV/AIDS by first, providing adequate health care plans such as vaccines to prevent the escalation of the disease from its current stage to an advanced stage. The second strategy would be to prevent the spread of these diseases to non-carriers in order to promote a safer and healthier population of young people. Awareness on health must be implemented in different rural areas of the continent by individual countries as well to educate the population on the gravity and seriousness of these diseases and how they can be contracted. Investment on health as a key indicator for development is important, as citizens must first be healthy before any country can thrive and ultimately witness development, as citizens are the key drivers of the economy. A sick population limits the growth and development of a country.

On Education which is one of the most seriously neglected aspects by African governments, it is important that 2 core stages take place. First is the enrollment of every African child into a school, irrespective of their social and economic status in the society. This can only be done through free education for every child at the primary and secondary levels. The second stage of this process would be to move from quantity which is the number of child enrollment to the quality of education that they get. This is important, as through education, the younger population would be able to develop necessary skills and competencies which would get them started for a better life, and increase their chances of earning considerable incomes in future. In that way, through their involvement in the economic process in term of inventions and business start-ups, etc. the GDP of African countries would be quadrupled.

While it is important to state these suggestions to opportunities for development in Africa, it is even more important to state that there must be an enforcement mechanism for African governments to implement them. This would involve working with regional institutions such as the African Union and international organizations such as the United Nations to sanction states which fail to meet up with a specified standard on both the education and health revamping process, thus leading the way for development in Africa.