The Growth Agenda: Insights and key recommendations

CDE the growth agenda

  • The Growth Agenda identifies the national priorities for faster economic and employment growth.
  • More than 20 years after apartheid, far too many South Africans live in poverty. Depending on how one calculates poverty rates, between 35 and 55% of South Africans are poor – that is, between 18 and 27 million people. Even at the lower level, there is considerably more poverty in South Africa than the norm for developing countries.
  • Rapid growth requires a speedy expansion of the numbers of South Africans with the decent education, skills and opportunities to help drive growth in many different ways. South Africa has to reconceive the relationship between growth and empowering tens of millions of poorer South Africans.
  • The Growth Agenda outlines the five catalytic priorities that would undo some of these policy knots.
  • The bottom line is this: South Africa needs accelerated growth that is urban-led, private sector-driven, enabled by a smart state, and targeted at mass employment.

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