If we want a human rights economy, Africa must change from within

When we look at human rights violations, most of us picture a very specific set of images: a journalist silenced by the state, a peaceful protest broken up by police  or a political activist locked away. The loss of economic rights does not usually cross our minds.

Yet, economic rights – having access to decent food, safe housing, a good school and reliable healthcare – are just as much of a human right. These aren’t just policy perks; they are obligations codified decades ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). When a government signs these treaties, it promises to respect, protect and use the maximum resources available to provide for these basic needs.

It is worth looking at how this plays out in Africa, a continent home to several of the world’s fastest-growing economies but one that is among the most unequal regions globally. On paper, commitment is nearly universal – 49 out of 54 African nations have signed the ICESCR, and economic rights are baked directly into the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Yet, the daily reality for millions highlights a huge gap between those promises and action.

Scale of Africa’s human rights challenge

The data reveals the scale of this challenge. The number of people facing hunger in Africa rose from 171 million in 2010 to around 309 million by 2025. Over the same period, hunger rates actually fell in Asia and steadied in Latin America. Meanwhile, according to Unicef, nowhere in the world is the global learning crisis more severe than in Africa, where an estimated four out of five children are unable to read a simple text by the age of 10. According to the World Health Organization, less than half the African population can reliably access the medical services they need.

The frustrating part is that these gaps exist despite explicit promises to fix them. Years ago, African leaders agreed on clear spending targets to meet their international and continental socioeconomic rights obligations. Under the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, governments pledged 10% of their budgets to food security – yet only Burundi, Ethiopia, and Mauritania hit that mark between 2015 and 2023. Under the 2001 Abuja Declaration, they promised 15% of annual budget to improve the health sector, but only Cabo Verde and South Africa met the goal in 2021. The story repeats in education: despite the 2015 Incheon Declaration’s target of spending 20% of budgets on providing quality education, only eight out of 44 nations with available data reached that baseline in 2019.

This underfunding is compounded by further unfulfilled economic rights across the continent. These violations include forced evictions carried out in several African states, leaving many people homeless and destitute. Moreover, there is a broader lack of economic freedom across the region. In 26 sub-Saharan countries, the ability of ordinary citizens to build businesses and make independent economic decisions without state interference is mostly absent, while in 14 others, it is actively repressed.

Governments must honour their commitments

If African governments are to fulfil their international and continental socio-economic obligations, a logical place to start is by honouring their own commitments to dedicate the “maximum available resources” to the agriculture, education, and health sectors. In doing so, they would align their economic models with the Human rights economy framework. Promoted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, this model measures a country’s success not merely by its GDP growth, but by how effectively it cares for its people and safeguards the environment.

Governments pursuing a human rights economy are also encouraged to protect the fiscal space required to meet human rights obligations. This can be achieved by legally codifying minimum expenditure thresholds for public health, basic education  and social safety nets – ensuring these sectors cannot be altered or defunded during debt restructuring. Given that some African countries pay more in interest on debt than they do on education and healthcare, establishing thresholds on these key human rights areas would be highly commendable.  Governments can further protect fiscal space by tackling corruption, multinational corporate profit shifting and illicit financial flows, which cost African states an estimated $513-billion a year.

Furthermore, a human rights economy framework invites governments to enshrine human rights at the core of all trade agreements, ensuring they drive inclusive, sustainable development and equitable growth. This integration is particularly crucial today, as Africa increasingly draws global interest as a strategic trade hub, driven largely by its vast reserves of natural resources, including critical minerals.

Transparency and accountability

Fostering public participation to ensure transparency and accountability is a vital prerequisite for governments that embrace a human rights economy. Consequently African nations still lagging need to actively open up space for political rights and civil liberties. Freedom House’s report for 2024 shows that 50% of African countries are not free at all, while 31 % are partially free in terms of political rights and civil liberties.

While international human rights groups do vital work shining a light on the socioeconomic violations happening across some African nations and there is recognition that building human rights economies also requires transforming the international financial architecture and global economic governance, true and lasting change must come from within. African stakeholders must lead the charge – after all, they are both the ones bearing the consequences and the ones who hold the key to the solution.

The data ahead is sobering. Projections show that by 2030, over half of the world’s 510 to 520 million people facing chronic hunger will be in Africa. In eastern and southern Africa alone, 66 million children and young people are expected to be out of school. According to WHO, it seems unlikely that the African region will achieve Universal Health Coverage, a core component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

That is why civil societies, advocates and everyday citizens across the African continent need to see economic and political freedom as two sides of the same coin. They need to demand a human rights-centered economy from their governments with the exact same passion they bring to defending political freedoms. Only then will the continent’s rapid growth actually lift up everyone, instead of leaving millions behind. DM