social point

  Poverty continues unabated in the African countries despite the high economic growth in many of them in the past decade, because the investments were concentrated in the extractive industry and in agriculture, which is tied most of the population, according to the expert Jan Rielaender.

The economic boom of the region is due to the good performance of the oil industry and other extractive activities, with minimal effect on reducing poverty, says Rielaender, one of the study authors African Economic Outlook 2011.

About 75 percent of foreign investment in Africa was based in countries rich in hydrocarbons and minerals, but with few links to the rest of the local economy and hence the poor.

The weak response of "poverty reduction" to economic growth was due in part because it was not linked to sectors where poor people work, remarked Rielaender, member of the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD).

The high price of fuels and minerals, the main export products of the region, was the key factor of economic growth in many African countries between 1996 and 2008.

The study, published this month, is the joint effort of the OECD, African Development Bank, the United Nations Program for Development and the Economic Commission for Africa.

Only three of the 14 African countries with non profit organizations annual gross domestic product exceeded the regional average of 5.3 percent between 2001 and 2009 showed a substantial decrease in poverty. organizations non