2024-04-21 22:40:07
This weekend closed the spring meetings in New York, the annual meeting of major international financial institutions. The opportunity for them to take stock and share their perspectives.
Five, six, sometimes more than 7% growth depending on the African states and yet, poverty and inequalities are not decreasing significantly. To combat this, the World Bank recommends a stable economic and political environment: debt under control and transparent budgets.
For the World Bank, the first lever lies in that of humans. “ It is very difficult for talented people to start businesses that develop, grow and create jobs, and ultimately we end up with a society with very low levels of intergenerational mobility “, notes Andrew Dabalen, World Bank chief economist for Africa.
“Promote generational mobility”
Africa has the lowest level of intergenerational mobility. According to World Bank data, of a cohort of children born in the 1980s, only a third of them were able to actually exceed their parents’ level of education. “ So it’s a way of thinking about inequalities. These are structural inequalities we are talking about », underlines the economist.
And this is not without consequences. This is why the institution calls on States to invest in human capital. Andrew Dabalen explains: “ It is important to promote generational mobility by eliminating many of these inequalities that begin very early in life. Equalizing opportunities for children is therefore very important through education from early childhood, a learning base for children, better nutrition, better health, etc. »
Findings which are widely shared by the IMF. The persistence of a high level of poverty is partly due to dysfunctions in financial markets, explains Luc Eyraud, head of studies for sub-Saharan Africa.
« There is what we call very low financial inclusion, explains Luc Eyraud. That is to say that if you are a very small business, you have a lot of difficulty, for example, having access to the banking market, going to see a bank and getting a loan. And so this also makes it difficult for a small entrepreneur to develop his business. And that maintains the spirals of poverty. »
Increase tax revenue
One of the main levers: increasing public revenue. “ As a priority, we need to increase the tax base. We don’t necessarily think about increasing tax rates, but there are very often what we call tax expenditures, that is to say exemptions which apply to large parts of the population, he continues. And we must ensure that everyone pays tax. That’s the priority. And when there are tax exemptions that benefit the wealthiest parts of the population, they must obviously be eliminated as a priority. »
The World Bank emphasizes in particular that the mobilization of national revenues can be designed to protect the poorest “ by imposing [par exemple] wealthy people through income tax and property tax ».
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