Latest information is that the Millenium Development Goals are set to be achieved in all continents except Africa. Rapid economic development in countries such as India and China has meant that the majority of MDGs will probably be easily achieved.
Growth in Africa is far less positive. Hampered by other problems such as disease and lack of food and education, poverty, in particular, in African countries seems to have proved an intractable situation. Added to these problems, much-reported difficulties with governance and transparency in Africa have not helped.
However, tourism to Africa has generally been a growth area (at least 7% per annum growth since 2000) and has provided much needed economic and other benefits.
This has caused the development institutions (including the World Bank and the European Union) to look again at tourism development as an opportunity to enable African countries to achieve the MDGs.
Three of the MDGs, in particular can be addressed by tourism development:
• Poverty reduction: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day.
• Promotion of gender equality: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and
secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no
later than 2015.
• Ensuring environmental sustainability: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
Countries that may well be targeted with technical assistance and soft loans for tourism development include Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, Sudan, DRC, Mozambique and Madagascar.
A full report on tourism development by donor agencies appears in the VISION/TOTEM Sustainable Tourism Report 2008.
VISION/TOTEM Sustainable Tourism Report 2008. Now published at UK£100, US$200, Euro140
For further information, and to purchase your copy contact [email protected]
