ZIMBABWE has performed worse than Africa as a whole on almost all sustainable development goal (SDG) outcome indicators such as health and education, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has said.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
In its latest report titled: Building a new Zimbabwe targeted policies for growth and job creation, AfDB said Zimbabwe scored extremely low compared to other African countries in as much as SDGs were concerned.
“In sum, the comparison of Zimbabwe and the rest of the Africa shows that Zimbabwe has performed worse than Africa as a whole on almost all SDG outcome indicators and that this result is consistent with the evolution of development drivers, including the prioritisation of consumption over investment and weak policies and institutions,” the report read.
“Weak policies and institutions prevent high spending on education and health from yielding stronger performance in these areas. To generate the growth needed to improve well-being and reduce poverty, Zimbabwe must close its infrastructure gap,” AfDB said.
The SDGs cover social and economic development issues, including poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanisation, environment and social justice.
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They reaffirm the need to achieve sustainable development by promoting economic development, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and good governance, including peace and security.
But the AfDB said Zimbabwe has been falling behind other African countries on infrastructure-related indicators, access to water, sanitation and electricity.
“Zimbabwe’s declining rankings in education indicators are underpinned by unchanged or declining enrolment, intake, and completion in the country, while the median for Africa increased noticeably,” it said.
Recently, Finance ministry officials told Parliament that Zimbabwe’s economy needed to grow by 7% in order to meet the SDGs.