Ouagdougou, May 15, GNA - The Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on Monday described poverty in Africa as substantially higher than in other developing regions with poverty being "chronic and rising".

Addressing a session of the ongoing African Ministers meeting in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou, Mr Abdoulai Janneh, Executive Secretary of the UNECA, said 46 per cent of the total population was still living below the one dollar a day threshold despite the significant improvements in the growth of African GDP in recent years. Speaking on the topic Meeting the Challenges of Unemployment and Poverty in Africa, Nr Janneh said the implication was that poverty had been unresponsive to economic growth with the majority of people with no jobs or secure sources of income.

He said African countries needed to grow in excess of seven per cent a year to reduce poverty enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

"Second is the low labour absorption in the growth sector and where agriculture is characterised by low productivity thus not providing enough real employment and income security to the population, particularly in rural areas."

Mr Janneh said there was inequality of distribution of opportunities created by economic growth and people lacked the capacity to meaningfully participate in the economy either as producers of goods and services or as suppliers of labour. He said only a few countries on the continent had sustained growth over the years although this was what was required to increase employment and reduce poverty.

"Decent employment is the main escape route. A major route out of poverty in Africa is decent employment, a concept that encompasses the quality of employment, rooted in productive secure jobs that provide adequate income and reasonable work conditions," Mr Janneh said. He gave the prerequisites for creating decent employment as the transformation of African economies from low productivity traditional agriculture to labour intensive high value agriculture and agro-processing.

"I also think that we should be looking more at growing industrial and the service sectors across Africa." Mr Janneh called on politicians to give priority to broad-based employment creation in national development programmes as well as poverty reduction strategies.

He said he was glad that political awareness was emerging among African leaders, some of which had in recent years recognised the connection between employment and poverty reduction and macroeconomic management and development frameworks. 15 May 06