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The World Bank Remains “Troubled” by Poverty in Cote d’Ivoire

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Despite the country's strong growth, the World Bank says that high poverty levels in Côte d'Ivoire remain worrisome. The international organization has stated that the country's government must put "social protection system" in place.

This article was originally translated from French. Click here to read more from La Nouvelle Tribune. 

Despite possessing enormous potential, the Work Bank has stated that the poverty level in Côte d'Ivoire, the strongest economy in West Africa that is undergoing even stronger growth, is "troubling".

The World Bank's Chief Operations Officer in the country, Ousmane Diagna, has stated that "Côte d'Ivoire is confronted with troublingly high poverty levels, especially in comparison to the enormous potential for economic growth the country possesses".  He went on to say that "today we can see that there are a number of people of are truly excluded from the benefits of growth".  He added that the political/military crisis that lasted from 2000-2011 "has something to do with this, but that a number of other factors are also at play".

Social Protection

In order to remedy the situation, the World Bank's representative proposed that Côte d'Ivoire establish a "social protection system" that would create "school cafeterias" and "feed poor children" or the that country start up several "labor intensive projects" in order to employ unskilled workers.

Côte d'Ivoire endured a political/military crisis from 2000 to 2011, during which the country was partitioned for nearly nine years.  The post-election violence, which marked the beginning of end of the crisis, left more than 3000 people dead. Côte d'Ivoire's Prime Minister asserted back in November 2013 that this situation led to the "weakening of the state, the deterioration of the country's economy, and an increase in the number of Ivoirians living in poverty — reaching almost 50% of the population.

"Pro-Poor" Spending

For the past three years, the country has experienced remarkable growth.  It grew at a rate of 9.8% in 2012 after "important reforms" were put into place and continued to expand at a rate of 8.7% in 2013. The country's economy is expected to grow between 8 and 10 percentage points in 2014. However, the population is not yet feeling the economic benefits of growth, and meanwhile the Ivorian economy hopes to become socially economically 'emergent' by 2020.

Côte d'Ivoire ranked 171st on the UN's Human Development Index, made up of 187 countries, in 2014 because of its poor medical and education structures, and it seems unlikely that the country will be able to satisfy all of the necessary criterion in order to be considered 'socially emergent' by 2020.

However, "pro-poor spending", or in other words, spending that is designed to "reinforce the country's economic fabric while improving the living standards of the population" makes up around 1 716.4 billion CFA (around 2.4 billion Euros) of the Ivorian government's prospective budget for 2015.  This up 12.8% percentage points from 2014.

This article was translated by Matthew LaLime, Staff Intern with the Africa Program at the Wilson Center.

Photo courtesy of Arvid Bring.

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Africa Program

The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and US-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial US-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in US-Africa relations.    Read more