Extreme poverty in Cape Verde increased in 2020 to 13.1% of the population

“It is estimated that in 2020, 13.1% of the population in Cape Verde lived below the international poverty line [with less than US$1.90 per day].

“Of this population, 8.2% was in urban areas and 24.3% in rural areas,” says the INE annual report, which compiles various statistics, consulted by Lusa.

In 2019, before the effects of the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, this proportion, according to INE, was 12.7%, and in the previous year, it was 11.1%.

In 2017, extreme poverty affected 13.7% of the Cape Verdean population, and in the previous year, 18%.

According to INE, in 2020, more than half of the population (51%), equivalent to about 286,000 people, were covered by at least one social protection benefit, including child support, maternity, unemployment or disability benefits, and retirement pensions.

In 2016, social benefits reached 43.6% of the population (231,728 people), which has been growing yearly, according to the INE indicator.

“Cape Verde has over the years been guided by increasingly comprehensive social protection policies, contributing to the reduction of inequalities, reduction of extreme poverty and sustainable development, increasing the population covered by at least one social protection benefit in recent years,” INE stresses in the same document.

“The effective coverage level of Cape Verde’s population is above the world average, standing at 46.9% in 2020. At the level of the African continent, the effective coverage was estimated at 17.4%, being 13.7% in sub-Saharan Africa,” it adds.

The archipelago is facing a deep economic and financial crisis, resulting from the sharp drop in tourism demand – a sector that guarantees 25% of the archipelago’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – since March 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, there was a historic economic recession, equivalent to 14.8% of GDP, followed by a 7% growth in 2021 driven by the recovery of tourism demand. For 2022, due to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, namely escalating prices, the Cape Verdean government lowered the growth forecast from 6% to 4%.

The Cape Verdean Prime Minister urged in May the country to take on the goal of “eliminating” extreme poverty entirely and assured that Cape Verde would pay “with results” the World Bank funding for the Human Capital Project.

“The value of the program is significant and similar to what has been the trajectory of program management with the World Bank; we are aware that we will have a good execution,” said Ulisses Correia e Silva, in Praia, at the presentation of the Human Capital Project funded by the World Bank (WB) in US$26 million, to support thousands of families in access to basic services and education.

“The World Bank portfolios in Cape Verde, as a development partner, have performed well, and we will return the funding through results that touch people, that can improve people’s quality of life and create a future, particularly for young people and women,” said the head of government at the presentation of the project, financed through the International Development Association, an agency of the WB group that provides interest-free loans and subsidies to the neediest countries.

Specifically, the Human Capital Project in Cape Verde, to be implemented by 2027, estimates to support over 3,500 people in poor and vulnerable households, facilitating their access to basic services and living conditions, over 40,000 people in “poor and vulnerable households, making them more socially and productively included”, through programs to improve access to childcare, business training, and entrepreneurship.

It will also support nearly 40,000 school-age youth “who should benefit from a more labor market-oriented secondary school curriculum” and 4,550 youth and women “to obtain certificates from professional training courses relevant to the labor market.”

Ulisses Correia e Silva stressed that the project has the educational system as central, as “support, foundation, and driver of transformations”, taking into account the need to “break the vicious cycle of poverty that is transmitted from parents to children”, also providing the neediest population with access to health, income, work, and decent housing.

“If we are to eliminate extreme poverty, I don’t mean reduce it. We must have the ambition to eliminate extreme poverty in Cape Verde because it affects people’s dignity. And reduce absolute poverty, insofar as it is also important for economic growth,” Ulisses Correia e Silva pointed out.

The Cape Verdean government admitted at the end of 2021 that the country has 115,000 people living in extreme poverty – living on less than US$1.90 a day for a total population of almost half a million – and took on the goal of eradicating it within five years, having launched the MAIS – Mobilization for the Acceleration of Social Inclusion program, involving non-governmental organizations and other civil society entities.

With information from Lusa