The Power of Social Justice in Combating Poverty in Africa: An Empirical Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/ajee.v5i2.7478Keywords:
Development Challenge, Poverty Outcome, Social Justice, UnemploymentAbstract
Despite decades of reforms to combat poverty in Africa, the incidence of poverty in Africa still remains a developmental challenge. This study examines the power of social justice in combating poverty in Africa using panel dataset comprises twenty countries, with data sourced from the World Development Indicators and the United Nations Development Programme covering the period of 2010 to 2024. The study employed the panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to empirically examine the relationship between poverty reduction and social justice. The findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between lagged poverty reduction and current poverty reduction, indicating persistence and path dependence in poverty outcomes. However, social justice, as well as our control variable, which is unemployment, is found to exert a negative impact on poverty reduction, suggesting that an increase in social justice mechanisms and low unemployment rates lead to a reduction in poverty levels in Africa. The results highlight the importance of strengthening effective and inclusive social justice frameworks alongside employment-generating policies to achieve sustainable poverty reduction across the continent. It is recommended that African policy makers should increase and stabilize public financing for social justice programs, extend coverage to informal-sector and rural populations, and strengthen administrative efficiency through improved targeting and digital delivery mechanisms.
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