Africa has the highest level of poverty in the world and is one of the two regions where poverty has not declined in the past twenty years. As the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s forthcoming Economic Report on Africa 2005 shows, the proportion of the poor – those living on less that one dollar a day – halved between 1980 and 2003 at the global level, from 40% to 20%. But in Africa, the share of the poor increased slightly, from 45% to 46%. Africa’s poverty rate in 2003 exceeds that of the next poorest region, South Asia, by 17 percentage points.
Africa has the highest level of poverty in the world and is one of the two regions where poverty has not declined in the past twenty years. As the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s forthcoming Economic Report on Africa 2005 shows, the proportion of the poor – those living on less that one dollar a day – halved between 1980 and 2003 at the global level, from 40% to 20%. But in Africa, the share of the poor increased slightly, from 45% to 46%. Africa’s poverty rate in 2003 exceeds that of the next poorest region, South Asia, by 17 percentage points.