Governments on the African continent have been rated poorly by their own citizens for doing little to tackle the issue of unemployment.
Citizens also raised concerns about the lack of quality healthcare and education. Concerns were also raised about the lack of adequate infrastructure, effective transportation system and durable roads.
These details were made in the latest survey conducted by the Pan-African research network called Afrobarometer.
The group released data from its work conducted between 2016 and 2018 in Ghana’s capital Accra on Monday.
In all citizens from 34 countries were questioned about the most important issues they want their governments to tackle.
The researchers say in areas citizens considered as priority needs, their governments performed poorly in tackling them.
Project coordinator at the group, Michael Armah Attoh says “when you are coming out with a policy, that policy is about the people, let the people’s voice also play a part in that decision making. We believe if policy makers will focus on some of these things, it will help us”.
The researchers said their work shows that many Africans are concerned about the performance of their government in tackling issues that relate to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SDGs are goals agreed on by world leaders at the United Nations with the objective of tackling key development issues globally.
Key findings
- Across 34 surveyed countries, unemployment tops the most important problems that Africans want their governments to address.
- That is followed by health, infrastructure/roads, water/sanitation, education, poverty, and management of the economy.
- The most important problems identified by respondents onto the SDGs was goal 8 which is “decent work and economic growth.” It was the highest-priority SDG (57%), by a wide margin.
- Poverty and low socioeconomic development, both at the individual level and the country level, strongly shape priorities.
- Jobs and economic growth (SDG8) as well as good governance (SDG16) are higher priorities for wealthier individuals and for more economically developed countries.
- Among poorer people and countries, jobs and growth are still important, but people place significantly higher priority on fighting hunger and having adequate supplies of clean water and energy.
The Afrobarometer group in its statement said “These findings can offer useful guideposts to African governments interested in boosting their performance ratings and achieving SDG success.”
“Understanding and responding to public priorities can facilitate more effective policy making and strengthen public engagement, which may in turn result in better performance,” the statement added.
Last month another African research group based in Ghana, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) said over 30 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will remain jobless by 2019.
Currently some 29.1 million people are estimated to be without jobs in the region. That number is expected to increase by some additional 2.2 million by next year.
Many of Africa’s youth are daily embarking on dangerous journeys to Europe to find greener pastures. Some of these young people who try to cross the desert or the Mediterranean die during those journeys.
Source: Africafeeds.com
