The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Office for West Africa has raised the alarm that 200 million or 53.5 per cent of West Africans live below poverty line.
It said that West Africa had a population of about 377 million in 2018.
The of Director UNECA, Bakary Dosso, said at the Expert Group Meeting
Draft Agenda in Liberia that the situation demonstrated the magnitude of the challenges the sub-region was facing.
The countries in the sub-region needed to institute major reforms to their macro-economic and financial frameworks, invest in human capital, tackle infrastructure deficits.
The countries also needed to improve their business climate to meet the 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, 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).
