Aid, employment, and poverty reduction in Africa

Arbeitspapier

Growth and poverty reduction in Africa are weakly linked. This paper argues that the reason is that Africa has failed to create enough good jobs. Structural transformation - the relative growth of employment in high productivity sectors - has not featured in Africa's post-1995 growth story. As a result, the region's fastest growing economies have the least responsiveness of employment to growth. The role of development aid in this context is problematic. Across Africa more aid went to countries with a low employment intensity of growth. The paper proposes a new approach to aid and poverty in Africa, one that focuses on supporting structural change for job creation.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-9230-764-6
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2014/043

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Foreign Aid ; Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions ; Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
• Subject: aid ; employment ; growth ; poverty ; structural change

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Page, John ; Shimeles, Abebe
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (where): Helsinki
• (when): 2014

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2014/764-6
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/96335
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET