Africa: World Bank Hails Poverty Reduction Efforts
By NewsfromAfrica
Nairobi—Kenya and many other African countries have improved the policy environment for poverty reduction, says a new assessment released by the World Bank today.
The latest Bank review of policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa shows a positive trend for poverty reduction, which is especially important given the difficult economic environment in the global economy.
The overall 2011 CPIA score for Kenya was 3.8, the same level as in 2010. Even then, Kenya recorded improvements in 2011 in key indicators including debt management, legal, regulatory and infrastructural framework to support financial outreach and services, and also in ratings for social protection and labour, fiscal reporting and access to information on public affairs. The challenge for Kenya during the year was monetary policy, which lagged in responding to the internal and external shocks that the economy experienced.
“The new scores on economic management, social safety nets and labour market policies demonstrate Kenya’s determination to create an economic environment that will support its growth to Middle Income Country status,” says Johannes Zutt, Country Director for Kenya. “But more needs to be done to improve the scores on public sector management to consolidate these gains.”
Kenya’s current CPIA score is above the average for all IDA countries and among the top 25 per cent of the International Development Association (IDA) countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and is at par with Uganda and Rwanda within the EAC region.
The review is part of the annual Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) that rates the performance of all developing countries in 16 indicators covering four areas: economic management; structural policies; policies for social inclusion and equity; and public sector management and institutions. Countries are rated on a scale of 1 (low) to 6 (high) for each of the 16 indicators. An overall CPIA score reflects an average for the 16 indicators combined.
The latest results show a higher CPIA score for nearly half of all IDA eligible African countries, with the number of gainers outpacing decliners by more than 2 to 1.
"There was a concern that a decline in the payoff to economic reforms during times of global economic turmoil would result in the slowdown of reform programs across the continent," says Shanta Devarajan, World Bank Chief Economist for the Africa region. "Despite the uncertainty, African policymakers generally did not backtrack on policy reforms during the global crisis, and some countries even accelerated them."