ABSTRACT

This chapter begins by discussing economic structure and development, and then examines challenges of economic measurement in Africa. It considers how the concept of poverty has been analyzed in recent years in Africa, including in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers that have been implemented since 1999. The chapter examines the changing economic structures of different parts of Africa, noting the challenges experienced by resource enclave countries, the constraints on landlocked resource-limited nations and the potential opportunities of resource-limited coastal countries. This focus on structure led into an assessment of African capacities to measure economies and track changes in statistical indicators, showing improvements underway as well as ongoing gaps. The chapter main focuses on poverty in Africa and ways to understand and measure the concept. A comparison of the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index and the Poverty-Line approach points out a lack of consistency between the two.