Over the last ten years the Africa region has seen commendable progress in the areas of democratic governance, economic growth and the provision of basic social services. Africa has the highest number of countries with democratic systems to date since the 1960s.

Before the economic crisis hit Africa in 2008, the region boasted impressive growth rates. Many countries were able to capitalize on this trend to allocate considerable sums toward basic social services, making progress toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Thus, while Sub-Saharan Africa remains the developing region with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty, poverty rates have dropped rapidly since 1990, hovering around an estimated 46 percent in 2008.

Sub-Saharan Africa has also succeeded in reducing by 17.4 per cent between 2001 and 2008 the number of adults and children newly infected by HIV/AIDS, and access to Anti-Retroviral Therapy has been expanded in many countries.

The region continues to show overall progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender parity in primary education will be achieved in most countries in Africa in 2015. The number of seats held by women in parliament has increased in at least 31 countries.

Today, the global economic and financial crisis is threatening to reverse many of these advances. The crisis is likely to add between 7 million (World Bank estimate) and 16 million (UN DESA estimate) people living below US$1.25 a day in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2009. The World Bank and IMF estimate that the poverty rate of Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be 38 percent by 2015, rather than the 36 percent it would have been without the crisis, lifting 20 million fewer people out of poverty.

Sub-Saharan Africa may be the lowest emitter of carbon dioxide, but it stands to be the region most affected by climate change (.pdf), which will compound the environmental and energy challenges that the region faces.. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that by 2020, 75-250 million people across Africa could face water shortages and rain-fed agriculture could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020. If temperatures rise above two degrees Celsius in sub-Saharan African, an additional 600 million people in the region could face hunger, new epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases as well as additional agricultural losses of up to US$26 billion by 2060.

UNDP on the ground

With its extensive representation and network of partners in 45 Sub-Saharan African countries, UNDP, in collaboration with regional institutions and other UN agencies and partners, is building the capacities of African governments and communities to accelerate progress toward the MDGs.

Following the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit which committed to increasing aid to Africa by $25 billion in 2004 dollars by 2010, UNDP has worked with partner governments in Africa and regional institutions to develop “Gleneagles Scenarios” which show that scaling up action toward the MDGs at the country-level is feasible. On the ground, the organization is working with governments, regional institutions, the United Nations and other development partners, including civil society organizations and the private sector, to tackle the multi-dimensional aspect of poverty by working on four focus areas, with gender equality and women's empowerment as cross-cutting areas:

• Poverty reduction and the MDGs
• Democratic governance
• Environment and energy
• Crisis prevention and recovery