12 African Countries with the Best Quality of Life

Meerub Anjum
9 min read

In This Article:

In this article, we will look into the 12 African countries with the best quality of life. If you want to skip our detailed analysis, you can go directly to the 5 African Countries with the Best Quality of Life.

Quality of Life in Africa

According to the African Development Bank, the quality of life in Africa improved substantially over the past few decades leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The standard of education, healthcare, and other fundamental services has witnessed a significant improvement over the recent years. The economic growth has also benefitted government practices and has enhanced employment and livelihoods. These advancements have collectively improved the quality of life in the region, resulting in a decline in the percentage of the African population living in poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted Africa's public finances, leading to an increase in fiscal deficit of 4.6% in 2019 to 8.4% in 2020. This hindered the improvements in the overall quality of life in Africa. Although the social and economic consequences of the pandemic have been momentous, Africa's resilience and collaborative strategy against the virus effectively protected lives against COVID in the region.

The African Development Bank has been making efforts to improve the overall living standard in Africa. The bank promotes human development in the region by supporting education, entrepreneurship, health services, water and sanitation access, and gender equality. For instance, in 2020 the bank continued its efforts for skill development entrepreneurship in Africa and trained 118,000 people in 2020.

In 2020, The bank partnered with 10 development finance institutions, to assess the impact of its investments via the Joint Impact Model (JIM). The model quantifies the job creation encompassing direct jobs, induced jobs, jobs in the supply chain, and jobs assembled by the operations' enabling effects. The model estimated that around 0.8 million direct jobs and 2.1 million jobs in the supply chain, induced jobs, and enabling effect jobs will be created with the help of 121 public and private sector operations, approved by the African Development Bank. Out of the total 3 million jobs, women will account for 1.3 million jobs. These jobs will collectively contribute $17.2 billion to the African economy.

African Development Bank is also making efforts for the provision of clean and safe water in the region. For instance, the One WASH National Program, in Ethiopia. It was implemented in 382 districts and 144 small and medium-sized towns, in collaboration with the Ethiopian government. The investment resulted in an increase of 50% to 97% in the percentage of the population with access to safe water, during the program. The program provided access to improved water and sanitation services to 8.3 million people in 2020, exceeding the target of 3.6 million.

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