Everyone says Africa is 'rising.' An 'Afrobarometer' poll questions that.
A version of this post originally appeared on 听blog. The views expressed are the author's own.听
听听is a research project coordinated by various institutions in African countries and with partners in thirty-one countries.
It recently conducted a听听across 34 African countries that showed popular skepticism about the 鈥淎frica Rising鈥� narrative. This, despite relatively high growth rates.听
In a report released on Oct. 1,听Afrobarometer听data indicates that 20 percent of Africa鈥檚 population often goes without food, clean water, or medical care.
Further, more than half of those surveyed think that economic conditions in their country are bad or 鈥渧ery bad.鈥� Some three quarters thought their government was doing a bad job in closing the gap between rich and poor.
John Allen, writing on听, suggests that the results indicate that higher benefits of growth are going to a wealthy elite or that official statistics are overstating growth, or possibly both.
Morten Jerven, in his recently book听Poor Number, has shown the shortcomings of African statistics.
In its听, the World Bank observed that Nigeria鈥檚 high growth statistics could not be squared by increasing rates of poverty.
These, and other inconsistencies, make Allen鈥檚 hypothesis on where the majority of Africa鈥檚 wealth is directed, look credible.
