Assessing Quality of Life from the Lens of Sustainability in Africa

Abstract

The complex and multidimensional nature of the quality of life (QoL) concept has given rise to different empirical works attempting to determine factors that could enhance its level in developing and emerging economies. Thus, scholars and policymakers have continued to demonstrate a keen interest in the concept because of its critical role in social planning—the goal is to accelerate the level of QoL of the people by lowering the harmful effects of social inequalities prevailing in today’s society. QoL forms one of the twenty-first century’s significant and disturbing social subjects. Thus, this study examined QoL from the sustainability perspective using ecological demands, renewable energy, income, urbanisation, and external debt in 44 African countries between 1990 and 2020. The study applied a battery of first and second-generation estimation techniques, including the dynamic common correlated effect, generalised linear mixed effect model, panel corrected standard error, and panel dynamic ordinary least squares procedures for deriving robust study inferences. The study demonstrated that as ecological demands and external debt continues to grow, QoL is adversely affected. Also, while income and urbanisation significantly positively affected QoL, renewable energy’s impact was neutral. The study proposed applicable policy measures for QoL enhancement in developing and emerging economies. JEL Classification: I31, O55, Q01.

Revisiting Public Outlay Determinants in African Economies: Fresh Insight from Sustainability Perspectives

“…Although African countries rarely consider ecological factors in public spending planning, it is noteworthy that environmental sustainability is as important as the other two elements in government expenditure determination (Aladejare and Osagu, 2023). Poor ecological conditions are a risk to future growth and development of an economy.…”

“…The GLMM is a linear subject-specific estimator that incorporates fixed and random effect parameters by means of maximum likelihood (Stroup, 2012). It is an advanced estimator of the generalised linear model (GLM), which makes it compatible with predicting non-normal and grouped data with intense random variability (Aladejare and Osagu, 2023). Consequently, the approach can confidently be adopted for panel datasets likely to exhibit heterogeneity and autocorrelation issues.…”

The Ecological Burdens of Globalisation and Their Effects on the Quality of Life in African Economies

“…Consequently, this present research bridges this literature lacuna particularly for developing countries by concentrating on African economies for two explicit reasons. First, among developing nations, African countries are reckoned to have the poorest QoL mirrored by low life expectancy (Aladejare et al, 2022;Aladejare and Osagu, 2023;Shang et al, 2024). For instance, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) alone accounted for 58% of all under-five mortality rates (UN IGME, 2024;Shang et al, 2024), and the highest maternal mortality rate (1 in 41) in the world (WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, 2023).…”

“…Simultaneously, the continent is witnessing the rapid growth of industrialisation drive, boosted by economic liberalisation policies (Aladejare and Nyiputen, 2023). When the effects of these factors are aggregated, they exacerbate the menace to food and water supply, socioeconomic development, and human health and safety; hence, weakening the QoL in Africa (WMO, 2020;Aladejare and Osagu, 2023;Aladejare and Musa, 2024b).…”

Brown vs Green Energy Sources and Resource Productivity: The Role of Human Capital and Technology Transfer in Developing Economies

“…Energy utilisation is a foremost requirement for advancing economic development since it contributes significantly to producing jobs, transportation, commerce, and agriculture (Anwar et al, 2021). Thus, energy is needed for poverty eradication and, by extension, sustainable human development (Aladejare and Osagu, 2023). For a lengthy time, brown energy sources served as triggers of economic prosperity.…”