Decade of Action: Fixing Africa's development deficit.

Over the past two decades, Africa has remained home to some of the fastest-growing economies globally, despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the year 2000 of the top 20 fastest growing economies in the world, Africa accounts each year for anywhere between 3 and 12 countries - a statistic worth celebrating.

Africa, however, cannot take a lot of comfort in this impressive statistic given the profound challenges the continent continues to face.

Let us start with per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures a country's progress. Per capita GDP is a robust measure that tells us how much a country produces for each of its citizens.

In the 1960s, out of 20 countries with the lowest per capita GDP, 14 were in Africa. And in the 2010s, out of the 20 countries with the lowest per capita GDP, 19 were in Africa. The statistics show that, while Africa had the fastest growing economies, the progress was not as significant in relative terms.

Other studies tell a similar story. In 1990, when the Human Development Index (HDI) was first computed, out of the 20 countries with the lowest HDI, 16 were in Africa. In 2019, out of the 20 countries with the lowest HDI, 18 were in Africa.

A football league

If countries were to belong to leagues of 20 countries each, as we see in football, with the top league being the 20 best performers in terms of the Human Development Index, it would give us a clearer perspective.

In 2019, no country in Africa would be in the top 3 leagues. Mauritius is the only country on the continent of Africa that would be in league 4. On the flip, Mali, Burundi, South Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, and Niger would exclusively occupy the bottom league, league 10.

Drawing from the statistics over the decades as presented above, it is not difficult to see the scale of the challenges the continent faces to climb to the top leagues of the world economy.

While there may be several possible actions, the three suggestions below could set the stage for tackling these challenges:

A shift in ideology for the players in the development space is fundamental

It is critical that players in the development space, that is, governments, businesses, and citizens acknowledge the development deficit and be reassured that tackling it will benefit everyone, irrespective of whether they live on the continent or not.

In fulfilling their duties, each profession could ask themselves simple questions: are we enabling the...