The World Bank, along with local authorities and stakeholders, launched the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for Cabo Verde on Monday, November 12 in Praia.
The Systematic Country Diagnostic is a World Bank assessment to identify the most important constraints for accelerating poverty reduction and improving the welfare of the bottom 40 percent of the population. The SCD aims to generate ideas that can inform government, civil society and other development partners and it is in line with the Country Partnership Strategy.
The Cabo Verde SCD notes that the country’s development progress has been impressive in terms of growth and poverty reduction. Extreme poverty, using the national food poverty line of PPP $2.90 per day has dropped by two-thirds since 2001 and was 10 percent in 2015. It continued to fall even when growth was low after the financial crisis of 2007.
The SCD notes that Cabo Verde faces inadequate human capital, caused by relatively high secondary school drop-out rates and insufficient skills, poor connectivity, including problematic inter-island transportation, weak ICT infrastructure and inadequate regulation, and high energy costs. Its highlights the risks to macro-economic stability and fiscal sustainability caused by high debt and the country’s high economic vulnerability, and a relatively weak public sector’s performance, leading to insufficient delivery of reform. Finally, the lack of resilience including high household vulnerability to weather shocks - which are worsening due to climate change - and lack of natural resources protection are also key constraints.
Cabo Verde Vice Prime-minister and Minister of Finance, Olavo Correia welcomed the World Bank assessment and indicated that Cabo Verde will benefit from a frank and open discussion of the main constraints to achieving the country’s development objectives. “We agree on the need for a more business friendly investment climate and to create more space for the private sector to generate jobs”, he said.
The Vice Prime-minister added that the government is already addressing many of the constraints identified in the SCD and called upon development partners for further support to Cabo Verde.
