Yr 2004  

    Population, total (millions)  

  725.8  

    Population growth (annual %)  

  2.1  

    Surface area (sq. km) (thousands)  

  24264.8  

    Life expectancy at birth, total (years)  

  46.2  

    Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)  

  100.5  

    GNI (current US$) (billions)  

  493.8  

    GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$)  

  601.4  

    Prevalence of HIV, total (% of population ages 15-49)  

  7.2  

  Source: World Development Indicators  

Sub-Saharan Africa. Overview

The Africa region was projected to grow by more than 4.1 percent in 2005 as the benefits of past reforms and a more peaceful environment continue to translate into expanded economic activity. But the region still faces serious challenges. More than 314 million Africans live on less than $1 a day—nearly twice as many as in 1981. The continent is home to 34 of the world's 48 poorest countries and 24 of the 32 countries ranked lowest in human development. The HIV/AIDS pandemic costs Africa 1 percentage point of per capita growth a year, while malaria kills about 2,800 Africans a day.

Some progress toward improving human development was made during the past year, but the challenges that remain are enormous. To address them, several global development initiatives were launched in fiscal 2005. Key among them were calls for a doubling of aid, fairer trade, and greater debt relief. For its part, the World Bank presented in September of 2005 its Africa Action Plan (AAP), which sets out a framework for supporting development results in the region, with an overriding emphasis on accelerating economic growth and ensuring that poor people, women and rural populations have the means to participate in any economic expansion. The AAP identifies priority areas of investment for additional resources that will become available to Africa under the 14 th round of funding of the International Development Association (IDA-14) and focuses spending in the areas where they would make the most difference in the lives of the poorest Africans: improving education and health outcomes, expanding infrastructure and agriculture, promoting private sector growth and strengthening partnerships.

World Bank Assistance

The World Bank is the largest provider of development assistance to Africa, and it has increased its support dramatically in the past five years. IDA commitments of US$3.9 billion in fiscal 2005 represented an increase of more than 80 percent compared with 2000, and disbursements of US$4 billion, more than double the 2000 figure. Through the recently approved Multi-donor Debt Relief Initiative, Africa will also benefit from a total of US$28.9 billion of relief.

The Bank's strategy is anchored on the Africa Action Plan, which focuses on supporting African countries to achieve measurable results in improving the lives of ordinary people, especially the poor and women. The AAP sets out how, through a series of concrete actions, the Bank, working in partnership with other development partners, can undertake a set of concrete, results-oriented actions to assist all African countries to meet as many MDGs as possible.

The Action Plan makes specific commitments, such as increased financial support for free primary education in 15 countries and more funding for roads, power, and other infrastructure. It also proposes an expansion of the Bank's Malaria Booster Program by 150 percent in 17 countries, and expects an upscaling of lending support for HIV/AIDS programs in 10 countries, as well as greater investment towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Expanding growth, trade and economic competitiveness

Since 1995, 15 African countries (representing 35 percent of the continent's population and excluding countries with oil resources) have averaged economic growth of 5.3 percent a year. Many of these countries increased their exports by more than 8 percent but not enough to improve Africa's share of global trade. Trade expansion requires the strengthening Africa's agriculture sector, which employs 70 percent of the region's labor force and accounts for 40 percent of its exports. The Bank is promoting efforts to meet the objective of NEPAD's Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program of increasing agricultural output by 6 percent a year through 2015. It is working to liberalize intraregional trade, set up capital markets and eliminate cascading tariffs that penalize African products.

Regional projects and regional integration as key

With 15 landlocked economies and a gross domestic product the size of Belgium's, Africa needs more effective regional integration to prosper. To support these efforts, the Bank established a Regional Integration Department that will fund multi-country pilot projects worth about $500 million by fiscal 2007, taking the lead from 11 highly effective regional projects funded by the Bank since 2001. The program and projects will cover trade facilitation, regional approaches to HIV/AIDS, private sector development, regional power systems, telecommunications, transport, tertiary health and education, agricultural research, migratory pests, food security, transnational environmental issues, and the weather-related vulnerability of rural communities.

Reducing and Mitigating Violent Conflicts

Liberia 's transition from violent conflicts to democratic rule with the election of Africa's first woman president in 2005, reinforced the commitment of African leaders to address the conflicts that affect about one-third of African countries and which are estimated to cost affected African countries 2.2 percentage points of economic growth each year. Peace and stability are key requirements if Africa is to implement development programs, attract foreign investment, sustain growth and increase exports. In fiscal 2005, the Bank provided assistance to 17 conflict-affected countries and low-income countries under stress. It also worked to increase transparency and reduce incentives for illegal trade in commodities linked to conflict, such as oil, gas, diamonds, timber, and precious metals.

Building capable states and improving governance

Sound governance and institutional capacity are critical pre-requisites for sustainable growth. Improving governance and building capacity are major challenges for Africa. Fostering transparency, accountability and voice, all of which reduce the incentives for corrupt behavior, is central to the governance agenda. In recent years, African leaders have acted on these challenges through the establishment of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which introduces peer review among African governments and societies. Together with regional cooperation these are key instruments for country-led governance reforms. The Bank strongly supports these initiatives and directs more than 20 percent of its new lending toward public sector governance with key interventions in expenditure management, civil service reform, decentralization, accountability mechanisms, and legal and judicial reform.

Promoting private sector-led growth and job creation

To grow economically, Africa must unleash the power of its enterprises to create jobs, expand exports, and generate wealth. According to the Africa Action Plan, the combination of high regulatory costs, unsecured land property rights, inadequate and high-cost infrastructure, unfair competition from well-connected companies, ineffective judiciary systems, policy uncertainty, and corruption makes the cost of doing business in Africa 20-40 percent above that of other developing regions. The Bank is committed to the promotion of constructive and practical partnerships between Africa's private sector and national governments. It also facilitates innovative approaches to financing. IDA, IFC, and MIGA are working together to support increased private participation in priority infrastructure projects and IDA has partnered with IFC to jointly launch a micro, small, and medium enterprises initiative.

Last updated on 10 April 2006

The Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) is a unique partnership of countries, regional economic communities, public and private African institutions and organizations, international organizations and development partners - all dedicated to the goal of ensuring that transport plays its full part in achieving the developmental objectives of Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty reduction, pro-poor growth, and regional integration.

Visit our Annual Meeting 2005 page

Conceived jointly by the World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in the late nineteen-eighties the partnership has grown and matured with ownership fully embedded in its partners and members. Over the years since its inception the SSATP has achieved recognition as the principal transport policy development instrument in the region, and as one of the most important, trusted, and relevant sources of knowledge on transport-related questions in Africa.

The breadth of the partnership, ranging from individual member countries to global institutions, provides opportunities for unique access and influence. Recognition of transport as a multi-sectoral resource drives increasing engagement with non-transport public and private actors in social, productive and economic sectors, as well as with civil society - all of whose voices demand a hearing in transport policy development processes. The SSATP, amongst other things, provides a forum for those voices and all beneficiaries of policy outcomes.

The SSATP Program is currently engaged in the implementation of its Long-Term Development Plan 2004-2007 (LTDP), and is managing a host of activities organized within a thematic framework. Overarching all is the Responsive Transport Strategies theme, and supporting pillars are Road Management & Financing, Appropriate Transport Services, and Regional Integration & Transport. Cross-cutting issues comprising Road Safety, Gender Equity, Employment Generation, Environmental Impact Management, and HIV/AIDS feed into all thematic work, as does sectoral data collection and management, and performance indicators.

The 2005 Annual Meeting of SSATP stakeholders took place on November 12-18 in Bamako, Mali.

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