Countries in Sub-Sahara African have
been urged to strive for improvements in the areas of data aggregation,
developmental techniques and empowerment of people, to enable them meet the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG’s) in the region by 2030.
Tolu Oyekan, Partner at Boston
Consulting Group (BCG) made the call while highlighting the challenges that are
hindering development in SSA countries and proffering possible solutions to
address the numerous problems in the region.
Oyekan said: “The UN has set a target
of 2030 to reach the SDG’s goals and in effect, eliminate the developmental
obstacles to growth and minimum livelihoods that hold back SSA and other
countries around the world. For SSA, that is an ambitious deadline.”
He, however, suggested that for SSA
countries to meet the set target, various governments and citizens must gather
more and better data and utilize them more effectively.
He added that the governments must
also increase and adjust the developmental techniques they employ to ensure they
sufficiently address local concerns and issues while taking advantage of
existing best practices, even from other disciplines. He added that SSA must enlarge the tent to
bring a wider and more diverse group of people into the design and
implementation process.
The BCG Partner emphasized that when
effectively used, data, developmental techniques and human capital can help SSA
countries achieve meaningful developmental gains, thereby making the region more
competitive.
According to Oyekan, statistics reflect
that the region has an alarming poverty rate as about 40 percent of sub-Saharan
Africa, or over 400 million people, live on less than $1.90 a day, defined as
the extreme-poverty line.
He however stressed that good data
from the SSA region is mandatory as that would enable the people understand the
prevailing challenges and conditions; and can also be used as a yardstick in
comparing SSA countries with other countries of the world.
Oyekan further pointed out that for meaningful
development to be achieved, SSA countries must implement developmental
techniques and methods that are aligned with unique regional needs.
He said: “For instance, behavioural
techniques can encourage desirable actions by sub-Saharan individuals and
groups, which in turn can help in local development.”
While speaking in terms of people,
Oyekan appealed for a push to increasingly widen the participation of African
people in the campaigns to solve Africa's problems.
He believes that stakeholders are
pivotal for the success of SSA developmental efforts; noting that these
stakeholders include women, young people, the bottom of the economic pyramid,
the private sector and small businesses.
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