The Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Office for West Africa has indicated that a rough estimate in West Africa shows that out of an estimated population of 377 million in 2018, over 200 million or 53.5 percent live below the national poverty line.
According to Director Bakary Dosso, this clearly demonstrates the magnitude of the challenges the sub-region is faced with.
Director Dosso made the statement Monday at the Expert Group Meeting
Draft Agenda in Liberia held at the Farmington Hotel in Robertsfield, Margibi County.
He indicated that countries in the sub-region need to institute major reforms to their macro-economic and financial frameworks, invest in
human capital, tackle infrastructure deficits, improve the business climate to meet the above challenges and positively impact as well as
sustainably reverse the trends.
He noted that success lies in the ability of the national leadership to execute in a timely manner, monitor and evaluate the implementation
of the different agendas to which it has committed for the
transformation of their respective countries and the continent.
The ECA Official said in terms of statistics, it appears that the
quality of the data produced suffers from major shortcomings, particularly in terms of regularity and accessibility.
In remarks at the meeting, the Deputy Finance and Development Planning
Minister for Budget and Development Planning, Tanneh Brunson, said
as a member state Liberia remains deeply committed to continuing her partnership with the sub-regional bodies and ECA for its continuous support to Liberia in making sure that the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 are jointly achieved.
According to her, it is a long term development framework that aims to materialize Africa’s vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful
Africa driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the world.
The intergovernmental committee of Experts is a body established by the United Nations General Assembly in West Africa.
It meets annually to discuss economic and social performance of member states based on working documents prepared by the Sub-regional Office for West Africa.
The office is based in Niamey, covering 15 member countries of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS)
TSS/as/APA