Poverty and educational inequality in sub-Saharan Africa

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, many Africans have experienced decline or stagnation in the quality of their lives. The continued high rates of poverty and declining educational enrolments in the region are outcomes of multiple factors, including escalating debt and declining development assistance on the global level and fiscal mismanagement, weak governance and continued population growth within African countries. One realization that has come from the experiences of recent decades is that poverty is both a cause and an outcome of low educational enrolments. Breaking the cycle requires great effort on two fronts simultaneously: (a) a targeted attack on poverty through policies that promote sustainable and equitable development; and (b) an unwavering long-term investment in basic education (Psacharopoulos, 1995). The question remains whether international organizations, African governments and local communities will heed the lessons learned from past missteps and apply them to future educational initiatives. Both the international community's renewed awareness of the importance of basic education and the recent educational efforts of African-based NGOs suggest that the answer to this question is a tentative ‘yes’. Perhaps the first decade of the new millennium will bring a more definitive answer.