African economic Outlook

This chapter reviews development in Africa from a human development perspective. A subregional approach is deployed to analyse progress in expanding people’s choices with regard to economic opportunities, health and education. The analysis employs measures of poverty and deprivation that extend beyond income to reflect on persistent human development gaps. The chapter also explores inequality and its impact on present and future human development trends and presents recommendations for the design of implementation and monitoring frameworks for Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the global post-2015 goals. An analysis of uneven human development within countries demonstrates the impact of socio-economic and geographic inequality on progress in human development. Finally, the economic, social and governance-related drivers of uneven human development inform a set of policy recommendations for the ongoing prioritisation of poverty, inequality and sustainability on national, subregional and continental development agendas.