The World Bank recently projected a moderate climb in GDP growth in 2014 for Namibia, now considered an upper middle-income country. At the same time, the Namibian government declared a national emergency in response to the growing number of malnutrition-related child deaths in the drought-ridden north.
Mixed signals are not unusual in middle-income countries. On one hand, income derived from the export of natural resources generates encouraging statistics and reassures donors to pack up and focus on low-income countries and fragile states. On the other hand, populations at risk remain as vulnerable as they ever were.
This is particularly true of populations on the periphery, those linguistically, culturally and economically isolated from groups that dominate the capitals, such as the Himba in Namibia or the Turkana or Somalis in northern Kenya (Kenya is set to become a middle-income nation sometime this year); but is also true of those just geographically distant from the wealth and services concentrated around major cities.
About the author
Alexander Matheou
Alexander Matheou is the regional director for Asia Pacific at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He has worked in the humanitarian sector for 20 years across a variety of fields, including disaster response, food security, social exclusion, displacement and migration, HIV/TB prevention, and institutional development.