PEOPLE | PROSPERITY | PLANET | INFRASTRUCTURE | DIGITAL
Home to almost 60% of Africa’s population, the Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) region is geographically, culturally, and economically diverse and comprises 26 countries stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South.
AFE boasts some of the world’s richest natural resources. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) produces much of the world’s mined cobalt, and Angola leads the region in the production of crude oil. For countries in Southern Africa, precious metals and minerals are the biggest exports, including gold and diamonds from South Africa and platinum from Zimbabwe. Many of these minerals will be in critical need to combat climate change and present a growth opportunity in a low-carbon future.
Economic activity in AFE is set to pick up from 2.5% in 2024 to 3% in 2025, and to accelerate further to 4.2% in 2026–27. AFE’s economic performance is dragged down by Angola and South Africa. Excluding these two countries, AFE is projected to grow by 3.3% in 2024, accelerate to 4.4% in 2025, and firm up at 6% in 2026–27. The best performer in AFE is the East African Community, with economic activity growing at 4.7% in 2024 and expected to grow at a faster pace in 2026–27 (6.8% per year). Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda were the largest contributors to the East African Community’s growth performance.
The World Bank works closely with country leaders, civil society, development partners, and youth in Eastern and Southern Africa to chart a brighter course for the region’s future. We also partner with regional economic organizations, such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community, and the Southern African Development Community to help countries reach their development potential.
Development challenges and World Bank support
The World Bank’s work spans the five dimensions of People, Prosperity, Planet, Infrastructure, and Digital for maximum impact on development across the world.
People are at the heart of Africa’s development, and the region has the potential to be one of the most productive in the world: between 2030 and 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa will have 90% of the growth in the world’s working-age population.
Education is the key to helping people break the cycle of poverty. In AFE, 62 million children, adolescents, and youth are projected to be out of school by 2030. Without substantial action, approximately 89% (or 122.8 million) of school-aged children will be ‘learning poor’.
The latest Africa's Pulse, the World Bank’s twice-yearly regional economic update, notes that two factors are critical to jumpstart inclusive growth: stabilizing economies and transforming education to equip the region’s growing workforce with stronger foundational skills and market-relevant expertise. The World Bank has launched an Education Business Plan 2030 for Eastern and Southern Africa, to prepare over 200 million children and youth to transform Africa's future. The goal is for all children and youth to have the education and skills to realize their potential and contribute to sustainable development.
World Bank projects in AFE are addressing challenges to achieving education goals across all avenues, from equitable and inclusive access, teacher training, and access to safe water and sanitation, to keeping girls in school and boosting school enrollment.
The Africa Human Capital Plan, which presents a blueprint to empower women through education and skills for future jobs; enhanced sexual and reproductive health rights; economic inclusion and jobs; and empowerment and voice, and large-scale programs such as The East Africa Girls’ Empowerment and Resilience Program are serving as catalysts to accelerate progress in the key areas of education, health, and nutrition services, job creation, and empowering women and girls.
The World Bank is working with countries to develop inclusive policies and governance systems to help maximize shared prosperity in the region. It is also focusing support on creating more and better jobs, given that more than 10 million youth enter Sub-Sahara Arica’s labor market every year and only 3 million formal jobs are created annually, leaving many unemployed. The World Bank is supporting countries in AFE to invest more in education to boost semi-skilled occupations for the region, educate girls, and provide access to jobs for women, and implement cost-effective private sector reforms that help boost competition.
With funding from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank is helping introduce stability in extremely fragile political contexts. Between 2020 and 2023, the South Sudan Safety Net Project provided temporary income opportunities via cash transfers of $23.5 million across 10 counties, benefiting close to half a million people, 52% of whom were women, strengthening local capacity amidst violence, displacement, and trauma.
AFE’s Food Systems Resilience Program is expected to reach 100 million people across the region by tackling the underlying structural challenges of food insecurity and reducing people’s vulnerability to unpredictable food-related shocks from climate and conflict events.
To end poverty on a livable planet, the World Bank is focused on helping people and systems in AFE mainstream addressing climate challenges, with a focus on adaptation. AFE is supporting efforts to adopt renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, watershed management, and climate resilience, while leveraging countries’ capacities to become hubs of clean energy and build green and resilient infrastructure and cities.
World Bank Country Climate Development Reports (CCDRs) show that boosting resilience and adaptation is an integral part of poverty reduction. AFE aims to provide 40-45% of our financing annually in support of climate-related measures, around 50% for adaptation.
Our Next Generation Africa Climate Business Plan provides a blueprint to help Sub-Sahara African economies achieve low carbon and climate-resilient outcomes in food security, climate shocks, resilient green cities, clean energy, environmental sustainability, macroeconomic policies, and green and resilient infrastructure. Our recent Regional Climate Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa (RCRP) Series of Projects (SOP) is implementing solutions and enhancing regional coordination to scale up action on climate resilience.
We are also working with resource-rich AFE countries in supporting the Climate-Smart Mining Initiative as the world moves towards renewable energy sources and we are also committed to supporting forest-smart development in the Congo Basin, putting people at the center of the effort.
Infrastructure investments are essential to driving economic development in AFE, especially related to reliable and affordable energy access. Access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy is critical for powering Africa and transforming economies. Connecting people, businesses, and economies to electricity changes lives, powers hospitals and schools, and creates job opportunities and fosters investments and trade. Yet, nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa live without access to electricity, representing nearly 83% of the world’s unelectrified population.
The World Bank Group is partnering with the African Development Bank and other partners on Mission 300, an ambitious initiative to connect 300 million people to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Mission 300 aims to accelerate the pace of electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa while ensuring that the transition to more diversified and cleaner sources of energy meets growing demand, brings economic growth, and creates jobs. Efforts are also focused on investing in generation, transmission, distribution, regional interconnection, and sector reform to ensure quality, reliability, and affordability of power supply.
The World Bank is also stepping up support for critical green and climate-resilient infrastructure to allow people to access reliable and affordable electricity, safe roads and transportation to markets and services, and high-speed internet that opens up opportunities for communities and businesses alike.
The Tanzania Rural Electrification Expansion Program (TREEP) has provided more than 4.5 million people with access to electricity, adding new connections in more than 1,600 and 6,000 healthcare and education facilities respectively, and creating employment and business opportunities for women and improving outcomes for students. The World Bank’s ASCENT program is structured to triple the rate of progress on energy access in AFE and provide life-transforming opportunities for 100 million people across 20 AFE countries over the next six years by accelerating energy access and scaling up access to grid and off-grid electricity and clean cooking.
The Burundi Integrated Community Development Project or the PRODECI-Turikumwe has helped refugee and host farming communities improve food security, build socio-economic infrastructure, and support micro-enterprise development.
Infrastructure related to water and sanitation is key for the region as well. The access gap to safe Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in the region is widening. AFE is implementing a plan with a focus and specific targets set for nine priority countries in FY23-FY26: Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Access to WASH can be a key driver of school dropout rates for adolescent girls, and this is being addressed in Malawi by the Lilongwe Water and Sanitation Project. It has transformed the water landscape, providing water supply upgrades for a quarter million people and Tanzania’s $350 million Sustainable Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program has delivered improved sanitation for 7 million people.
Digitalization presents immense opportunities for development in Eastern and Southern Africa, including job creation, poverty reduction, and improved service delivery, but current levels of internet availability and access are insufficient and uneven. The region currently has the slowest pace of digitalization globally, with only 64% of the population covered by high-speed internet, and just 24% of the population using the internet as of 2023.
Digitalization is a key priority for the World Bank’s AFE region, which aims to ensure that every individual, business, and government will be digitally enabled by 2030. To achieve this, the region is supporting investments in digital infrastructure, skills, platforms, and regulatory frameworks.
The World Bank’s Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa (IDEA) program is setting out to revolutionize the region's digital landscape, helping achieve universal digital access by 2030, in line with African Union and UN objectives. This ambitious initiative aims to increase access to the internet and the inclusive use of digitally enabled services that will benefit over 180 million people (half women) in 15 countries (starting with Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Malawi) and Regional Economic Communities. With a budget of up to $2.48 billion, IDEA is financed through the IDA and IBRD. As well, the World Bank’s flagship Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative has launched 70 digitalization projects in Africa since 2019.
The Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project is advancing digital market integration in the region by increasing affordable access to regional broadband connectivity, strengthening the enabling environment and policy convergence for cross-border digital trade and data flows, and developing digital skills.
Digital inclusion is benefiting women and girls, as well as populations in underserved areas, in many African countries. In Uganda, a 2021 World Bank collaboration with the EQUALS Global Partnership’s Access Coalition, GSMA, Trickle Up, and AVSI launched a women’s digital literacy and inclusion pilot among refugee and host community participants, resulting in a fourfold increase in basic digital skills. In Ethiopia, over 900,000 poor households in drought-prone communities received their benefits in electronic accounts in 2023, 43% of which are owned and operated by women.
Research and Analysis
Knowledge is essential for governments to make better, evidence-based policies and for institutions to make aid more effective. Our most recent studies can be found below, and analytical work by country is published on each country’s website.
Recent research includes:
- Africa’s Pulse: Transforming Education for Inclusive Growth
- Africa’s Resource Future: Harnessing Natural Resources for Economic Transformation during the Low-Carbon Transition
- Reaching the Potential for the Digital Economy in Africa: Digital Tools for Better Governance
- Land Policies for Resilient and Equitable Growth in Africa
- The Commons: Drivers of Change and Opportunities for Africa
- Approaches to Deliver Inclusive Education in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Last Updated: May 12, 2025
