Throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa, incomes have risen considerably since the 1980s, albeit from a very low level. Calls for increased long-term development aid are now more frequent than ever.

In the Central African Republic, however, these trends have moved in the opposite direction. Incomes have hardly risen in more than 20 years, and development aid has fallen by about 60 per cent in real terms since 1985.

While poor governance is often cited as a reason for this development, CAR does not score any worse on governance indicators than most other African countries.

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The presentation charts the most important trends since the 1980s:

• Only two countries have a higher share of people living on less than a dollar a day.
• Real incomes in CAR have risen by less than ten per cent since 1985, while Sub-Saharan African incomes rose by almost 80 per cent over the same period.
• CAR is the only country at the bottom of the Human Development Index that has not made any progress since 1985.
• Overall development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa has risen by 54 per cent since 1985, but fell by almost 60 per cent in CAR over the same period.
• With $ 23.5 per head in 2005, CAR received the lowest development assistance per head in the region.
• According to the World Bank’s Global Governance Indicators, CAR scores better on political instability, corruption control, and voice and accountability than most African countries, yet receives considerably less development aid per capita.

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