The welfare of Africans rose in both the 1960s and 1970s, whether assessed solely by GDP per capita or by the wider HDI. Taking a population weighted average for the 33 African countries for whom data is available, GDP per capita in 1987 US dollars rose by around two fifths between 1960 and 1980. For the five South Asian countries for whom data is available, the rise in incomes was smaller, amounting to less than one third of GDP per capita in 1960. After 1980, the situation radically changed. Per capita incomes fell in Africa whilst in South Asia they had risen by a half by 1994. Since 1960, Africa has experienced more improvement in the composite human development index than in GDP per capita. This is particularly marked since 1980, when the human development index continued to rise despite economic decline. However, the rise in the HDI during this period was much slower than in previous decades.
Although health in Africa is poor compared to elsewhere, it has improved greatly since 1960
when life expectancy on the continent was only 41 years. Until 1980, life expectancy in Africa was only slightly less than in South Asia. Thereafter, however, trends in the two regions diverged sharply. Life expectancy in Africa rose only 3.5 years from 1980-1994. By contrast, the rate of increase in longevity accelerated in South Asia, rising from 51.5 to 61.3. This period also marked the greatest divergence in economic performance between the two regions.
Africa’s high literacy rates compared to its income reflects the substantial expansion of schooling in Africa since 1960. For the 27 African countries for whom we could obtain data, gross primary school enrolment ratios rose from 38% in 1960 to 83% in 1980. As a consequence, the adult literacy rate doubled between 1970 and 1994. These improvements in literacy are greater than those in South Asia: during the same period, adult literacy in that region increased by only slightly more than one half. Whilst adult literacy rates were lower in Africa than in South Asia in 1970, the reverse is now true. However, in the area of enrolments Africa’s performance has been inferior to that of South Asia. Combined educational enrolments in 1994 are only 3 points above their 1980 levels; in South Asia, they had risen by 16 points. For the countries for whom we have data, gross primary school enrolments have on average fallen since 1980. Secondary school enrolment rates - and the proportion of girls in primary school - have continued to rise but at a slower rate than before. Educational expenditures per student have fallen in real terms (Sahn, 1992).
The result of these flow expenditures on the stock of human capital can be assessed using a consistent set of data from 1965 to 1990. This we do in Table 2 and figure 1 which show the percentage of the population over 15 with no education, and with some primary and with completed primary education. The levels of completion at secondary and higher levels are also shown. The figures for primary completers include those who completed education beyond primary. In 1965 both Africa and South Asia had 70 per cent of their population over 15 with no education. By 1990 this percentage had fallen further in Africa than in South Asia, to 46 per cent as compared with 55 per cent. While Africa has out-performed South Asia in giving its population some education, in terms of both primary and secondary completion rates its performance is inferior. In 1990 25 per cent of Africa’s population had completed primary school, while in South Asia it was 32 per cent. Africa has been relatively good in getting children into primary school, but bad at inducing them to complete. This problem of drop-outs is a major problem for many African countries: they spend large amounts of money teaching children who do not stay in school long enough to learn much or to acquire any qualifications. Drop-outs may be partly due to the low quality of schooling offered. Experimental evidence from Brazil suggests that investments in higher quality education (such as extra provision of textbooks) may be self-funding if they lower drop-out and repetition rates (Harbison and Hanushek, 1992). Africa also has low rates of secondary school competion at 4 per cent, they are less than half that of South Asia, one-third that of South1East Asia and less than 10 per cent of that of East Asia. The decline in enrolments rates and the decline in the growth rate of educational coverage that can be observed in Africa may well reflect the low growth rates of income the 1980s. In both 1965 and 1990 East Asia’s education level was markedly higher than that for the other developing regions.
Human Capital and Economic Development Simon Appleton and Francis Teal
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African Development Bank
(Visit African's Website)
The African Development Bank is the
premier financial development institution
of Africa, dedicated to combating poverty
and improving the lives of people of the
continent and engaged in the task of
mobilizing resources towards the economic
and social progress of its Regional Member
Countries.The Bank’s s mission is to
promote economic and social development
through loans, equity investments, and
technical assistance.
The ADB is a multilateral development bank
whose shareholders include 53 African
countries and 24 non-African countries
from the Americas, Asia, and Europe. It
was established in 1964, with its
headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire,
and officially began operations in 1967.
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