Many African countries need to manage their public finances better to help them achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This will require governments and their development partners to adopt more incremental approaches that take greater account of the local context.
Africans had good reason to be hopeful when all 193 United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Alongside their ambitious pledges to end poverty by 2030 and “leave no one behind,” world leaders aimed to mobilize a wide array of domestic and international resources to realize the SDGs. But rising national debt, a slowing global economy, and weakening multilateralism are preventing many African countries from making progress.
“Most African governments’ budgets are already under stress, even before SDG-related spending is taken into account.”
“To make reasonable strides toward the SDGs in these circumstances, governments will need to deliver public services more economically and efficiently.”
Contintue to read this CABRI's commentary by Neil Cole and Biniam Bedasso published at Project-Syndicate.org.
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