Togo: Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (Electronic book text)

Since the early 1990s, Togo has been experiencing a political crisis which has severely hampered its efforts to achieve development, and which has brought about a massive reduction in foreign aid. The Human Development Indicator fell from 0.510 in 1995 to 0.495 in 2004, in a departure from the rising trend observed in the preceding decade. Overall, the political crisis has had an adverse impact on the economic situation, and economic growth has been well below the natural increase in the population. This has also had repercussions on social conditions and has worsened poverty. In fact, according to the QUIBB survey conducted in 2006, 61.7 percent of Togolese are currently living below the poverty line. The situation is even more difficult in rural areas where the incidence of poverty is 74.3 percent. The political and economic instability has had an unfavorable impact on socially-oriented public expenditure, leading to insufficient progress in social indicators, particularly those related to education, health, and safe water, etc. This situation, unless rapidly brought under control, is liable to handicap efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the sectors concerned.