The Africa Governance Report
Aspiration 1: A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development, and
Aspiration 6: An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African
people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.
The figure below provides a snapshot of the levels of Human Development, averaged over ten
years by country, for each region in Africa.
Figure 4: Average Human Development Index by regions
Source: UNDP Human Development Reports (Various years)
Similar to real GDP per capita and poverty headcount data, north Africa has the highest average
human development of 0.69 (medium human development) while the HDI for rest of Africa is
hovering between 0.4 and slightly over 0.5 in value terms. While medium to low HDI alludes to
low performance in some aspect of the combined dimensions of the index, it is crucial to identify,
and bring to the fore, some key challenges which might be responsible for compromising the
value of the HDI and ultimately, the overall development trajectory of a particular country.
6.3
Some Development Challenges
The key to the successful implementation of a national development agenda as articulated in development
plans is the availability of adequate resources, governance structures and institutional capacities that
can realise its objectives. Although there are many challenges to Africa’s development, this inaugural
report will only examine five of them, namely Natural Resource Governance, Illicit Financial Flows,
Dependency on ODA, Corporate Governance, and Unemployment and Gender Equality.
6.3.1
Natural Resource Governance in Africa
Africa is abundantly endowed with a large variety of natural resources. However, this has not
translated into improved prosperity, broad-based development, resource-based industrialization
and decent development in the continent.
The continent has 30 per cent of all global minerals, including more than half of the world’s
rare minerals. It is rich in both renewable and non-renewable natural resources. Its geography
includes the world’s largest arable landmass, the second largest and longest rivers (the Congo
and Nile, respectively), and the second largest tropical forest. The continent’s proven oil
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