In the long run,
the facts are on the side of the optimists.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., the arc of history bends toward progress. But progress doesn't just happen. People work hard to discover ways forward.
The What Works Initiative
highlights positive outcomes on difficult issues – and how people achieved them.
In a major sign of economic ambition in sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia is building what will be one of the world’s largest airports – a little bigger than Hartsfield in Atlanta. It is aimed at competing with Dubai and Istanbul as inter-continental hubs, as well as facilitating intra-Africa travel.
In a related sign of growth, a new report from Boeing forecasts that African air passenger traffic will grow at least 6 percent a year leading to a doubling of the African air fleet in 20 years – from 755 to over 1,600 commercial passenger jets.
Africa is rising, but very unevenly.
As the whole world becomes wealthier, extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa. As much as 75 percent of the extremely poor live there, not because the region is growing poorer but because deep poverty is disappearing elsewhere – especially in once-poor countries like India and China.
But eight Sub-Saharan countries have at least doubled their GDP per person since 1990, even after correcting for inflation and purchasing power. The is roughly the world average in growth per person over that period. Cape Verde, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda more than tripled. Ghana, Uganda, and Mozambique came close. Botswana, the region’s biggest success story, didn’t grow quite that much but is already ranked as a high-middle-income country.
But the region is very uneven. Some countries, such as Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar actually declined in GDP per capita in recent decades, after discounting for inflation.
Sources: World Bank; IMF; Our World in Data; Simple Flying; Market Forecast