AFRICA ZERO POVERTY ASSOCIATION (AZPA)

Africa includes some of the poorest countries in the world. In much of Africa south of the Sahara, harsh environmental conditions exacerbate the conditions of poverty. Dry and barren land covers large expanses of this region. As the poor try to eke out livings through farming and other subsistence practices, they exhaust the land, using up the soil nutrients needed to grow crops. Over time this has led to desertification, a process in which once fertile land turns to desert. During the late 20th century, desertification contributed to famines in a number of African nations, including Somalia, Ethiopia, and Mali. Political instability and wars in many sub-Saharan countries have also contributed to poverty. As a result of such factors, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa grew from 217 million in 1987 to more than 300 million in 1998.

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Child Poverty in Africa – the facts

• 200,000 child slaves are sold every year in Africa. There are an estimated 8,000 girl-slaves in West Africa alone. (sources: BBC 5 October, 2001 & Anti-Slavery Society)

• About 120,000 African children are participating in armed conflicts. Some are as young as 7 years old. (source: Africa Children’s Charter)

• Children account for half of all civilian casualties in wars in Africa. (source: Africa 2015)

• One in six African children dies before the age of five. Most of these deaths could be prevented. (source: Africa 2015)

• Nearly one third of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are underweight. (source: UNICEF)

• In sub-Saharan Africa, measles takes the life of a child nearly every minute of every day. An effective measles vaccine costs as little as $1 per child. (source: UNICEF)

• Between 12 and 14 million African children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. (source: World Bank/UNICEF)

• Nearly 2 million children under 14 years old are HIV positive. (source: UNICEF)

• 43% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have safe, accessible drinking water. (source: UNICEF)

• 64% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have adequate sanitation. (source: UNICEF)

• Only 57% of African children are enrolled in primary education, and one in three of those does not complete school. (source: Africa 2015)

• For every 100 boys there are only 83 girls enrolled at primary school. (source: World Bank/UNICEF)

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What are the major challenges facing Africa today?

The challenges facing Africa are daunting.  Africa has the highest proportion of its people in extreme poverty and is not on target to meet any of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed at the United Nations in 2000.  The MDGs are:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty is falling, but there are large variations in progress between regions. Asia is making good progress, but there is little movement elsewhere and sub-Saharan Africa is going backwards.

  The world already produces enough food, but the key to eradicating hunger is to ensure that ordinary people in the developing world can get access to it and that it’s affordable. Poverty is the principal cause of hunger.

• Achieve universal primary education
  Number of girls out of school in Africa is the highest in the world (23m)

• Promote gender equality and empower women
  Having more educated women with greater rights could make the single biggest positive difference to reducing poverty, the rate of childhood diseases and death and the spread of AIDS in developing countries.

• Reduce child mortality
  Thirty years ago, one in five children in the world died before their fifth birthday. This has now been halved to less than one in ten. Better access to vaccinations and other basic health services and improved living standards have contributed to a steep decline in global deaths among infants and children over the past 30 years.

• Improve maternal health
  Every year, more than half a million women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth. Almost all of them would still be alive if they had access to a skilled midwife or doctor in childbirth and effective emergency care for women who have complications.

• Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  In Africa, in 2003, some 26.6 million people were living with HIV, 3.2 million people became infected, and AIDS killed 2.3 million.

• Ensure environmental sustainability
  Many of the world’s poorest people depend on natural resources for a healthy diet, clean water, shelter, energy, and medicines. What’s more, these people are often most vulnerable to disasters and hazards such as flooding, landslides and pollution brought about or exacerbated by environmental degradation

• Develop a global partnership for development
  The targets in the global partnership for development millennium development goal include a fairer trading and financial system. Getting rid of barriers to trade could lift almost 300 million people in the developing world out of poverty.

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What is being done to help Africa?

Despite the challenges, there are signs of progress and more is achievable.  Importantly, Africa’s development agenda is increasingly African-led.  Improved partnerships between African and donor nations have resulted in increased aid flows being used more effectively.

The African Union (AU), supported by the donor community, is helping to deliver many of Africa’s pre-requisites for development; particularly in the areas of peace and security and governance.  The AU are developing the necessary structures and institutions to allow Africa to better prevent, manage, and resolve conflict in the region.

There has been a recent major shift in African effort to address the continents problems. The New Partnership for Africa’s development (NEPAD) and the AU aim to tackle HIV/AIDS, reduce poverty and sustain long-term economic growth. It’s committed to governance and promoting peace and security. Many countries are showing signs of progress towards democracy and governance. The African Union has established the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as a voluntary self monitoring mechanism for states to conform to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values. 24 countries have so far signed up to participate in the APRM.

A number of countries within Africa have made real progress:

• In the last five years, Mozambique has reduced poverty from 70% to 55% and has doubled the number of children in school; 

• Kenya has introduced free primary education, which has brought 1.2 million children back into school; 

• In Tanzania, 1000 new schools have been built and 18,000 teachers recruited.  This will enable Tanzania to achieve the goal of primary education for all in 2006 – 9 years before the target date of 2015;

• Uganda has reduced HIV from 20% in 1991 to around 6.5% in 2001.  The experience of Uganda in relation to HIV/AIDS shows that with political will the tide of an epidemic can be turned;

These are just a few examples of what can be done.

Countries in the north are recognizing that partnerships with countries based on a commitment by both sides brings real benefits in the long term.  High and predictable levels of resources to countries that have a credible Poverty Reduction Strategy and the political will and capacity to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals can reduce poverty (this is the case in Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda and Rwanda).

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Sources:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577020_4/Poverty.html http://www.standupforafrica.org.uk/index.html
http://www.g8.gov.uk/

Facts About Child Poverty

Child Poverty in America 13.5 million children in America live in poverty. Check out this page to find out more information about child poverty in the country which declares itself as the richest in the world. Read More

Child Poverty in Australia Australia also is not immune to child poverty. One in seven Australian children are battling the disadvantages of poverty. More information if you click the link. Read More

What’s the problem with poverty in Africa? Decade after decade, politicians and international organizations have failed to reduce it. Nor have they been able to help Africa generate growth. Worse, between 1975 and 2000 it was the only place on earth where poverty has intensified. It’s only recently that the situation started to improve… slowly

In fact, there has been some growth since 1995 but it’s been mostly in the very new services sector so it created only a few jobs whereas manufacturing and agriculture could have done much better. As the British prime minister declared in 2001 African poverty is “a scar on the conscience of the world”, and globalization and technological inflation have made it only worse. It only helped further excluding the continent and widening the gaps with the rest of the world. However development economists and other fancy experts have been approaching the problem from new angles to provide new ways to best tackle impoverishment.

Let’s see how all that improves our understanding of poverty in Africa, the plague of a continent.

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Globalization and institutions

Aside from political and social reasons (e.g. corruption, ethnic violence), many economists argue that the absence of economic growth is in part due to a detrimental geography that impacts on the economy. But in many cases, oil-rich African countries are also more likely to be exploited by other countries or powerful corporations.

In most developing countries, disparities pose the problem of redistribution of wealth, but many African countries are simply too poor to redistribute anything. The average income level is sometimes so low that even working people live under poverty. So, how do you fix that?

International trade policies, for example, are incomparably more important than international aid to end African poverty and help its countries to integrate the global market. Surprising? Not that much considering the global competition that the continent has to face: not only are the US, the European Union protecting their key industries (especially those that Africa could compete with, like agriculture), but now Asian countries also got in the game, spearheaded by India and China.

With each of them seeking to protect their benefits, the international community should rather give preferential market conditions to poor countries (e.g. for export or agricultural development). This would provide them a path to fast development, and hopefully diffuse the benefits to inner regions. In that way the internal market could also thrive and help alleviate poverty in African countries that are landlocked. Read here how African farmers have finally won their case at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

So far local governments, international aid and market reforms had only a minimal effect on the population. Consequence: folks have had to solve their problems on their own, outside the system. It is only recently that new international policies, such as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in Africa, have stopped overlooking at the effect of politics on local economies: transparent and accountable government, rule of law, public resources management, free and fair election combined with an active civil society are now recognized as a vital factor of poverty alleviation. This whole forms what specialists now call “good governance”.

Considering the extent of corruption and violence of local councils and governments, it’s not surprising that a huge part of the African population can only fend for itself most of the time, relying on a makeshift economy. This makes them hard to reach by international aid but at least they have an alternative system to fall back upon: coping through sharing. Not only farmers in rural areas but African urbanites as well manage to avoid the claws of the law. This makes many development policies totally ineffective.

International aid

Another issue is that of international aid. Aid donors obviously want to make sure that their money is put to the right use, rather than to building palaces for individual use. Now how things have changed is that foreign aid has become demand-driven with local communities, governments and NGOs competing to receive the funds. This should help foster competitiveness and efficiency of development projects as well as transparency. In other words it should radically reduce corruption and embezzlement.

This model was field tested and can help avoid the case of the African Millennium Villages, blindly “shooting” money in every direction in a local community, like a crazy action hero that does not take nuances into account! What is needed is targeted funding that provides new opportunities and incentives for people to participate in the development of their country. Humanitarian aid remains way too opaque, only the most concrete and effective programs should remain. In particular those that help local entrepreneurs, not multinationals.

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Geography and poverty in African regions

Recently specialists have increasingly taken into account the role of geography to explain the absence of economic growth and the aggravation of poverty in Africa. Whereas in many developing countries there are disparities that pose the problem of redistribution of wealth, Africa is simply too poor to redistribute anything. Well that’s not totally true. Africa is full of natural resources, but to give just one example many multinational companies that extract these resources don’t even pay any taxes to the country where they operate. In other cases, it’s simply that the local aristocracy keeps all the revenues to itself.

So poverty in Africa is paradoxical: the continent is made of 54 countries of low population density and rich in natural resources, but as usual they’re unevenly distributed between regions and within local populations. The countries are separated into resource-rich and -poor and into coastal and landlocked ones. Across all categories, most countries have remained stuck with a GDP per capita below $2000 for the past six decades.

Unlike other continents, a great share of the population in Africa lives in landlocked, resource-scarce countries which accounts for 1% of its overall growth rate. Another consequence of this is that policymakers need to start thinking in terms of context-based development strategies rather than continent-based ones.

In particular concerning the resource-poor landlocked regions which will remain the very core of the African poverty puzzle. A puzzle that year after year became obviously unsolvable in a day. These very countries are the ones that would need a sort of targeted, continuous aid flow in order to steadily raise consumption levels, therefore consistently reducing poorness in Africa. Nevertheless, today’s aid flows only focus on short-term emergencies.

Read here about the influence of oil on poverty in Sudan and Darfur

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Health and poverty in Africa

Almost half of the population in Africa suffers from water-related diseases. On top of insufficient hygiene education, the frequent inundations (and lack of risk prevention) play an important role: in Mozambique over 1 million people were displaced by the floods of 1999/2000 and an unknown number killed.

Diseases in Africa – and in particular HIV-AIDS – are another major threat to economic development. As an academic (Whiteside 2002) puts it: “one of the main consequences of the disease is that it impoverishes individuals, households and communities”, thus further entrenching the roots of poverty in Africa.

This is a vicious circle by which poverty boosts the spread of HIV which in turn increases poverty. The case of the poor in South Africa shows that despite the country’s substantial growth, that growth is still too concentrated in the hands of an “uninfected” minority. That way the gap between the rich and the poor only gets bigger and bigger, making it harder for impoverished populations to catch up with the well-off.

As for basic sanitation and hygiene, it is first and foremost an educational issue. Hygienic habits have consistently prevented millions of deaths across the world in the past decades. And just like in all the countries where it happened, massive full-scale educational campaigns are needed to significantly alleviate poverty in Africa.

Read here about the role of HIV/AIDS in worsening poverty in South Africa

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Education and poverty in Africa

Education then is yet another big issue. Starting to feel slightly overwhelmed? We’re just talking about everyday life poverty here! … So, not only does proper education help eradicate a great deal of diseases (STIs, sanitation, etc), but there is also a direct link between levels of education and poverty.

Authoritarian rule in most countries has only made the situation worse, deepening both levels of education and poverty in Africa. For that reason, although some argue that authoritarian regimes can better spur development in some cases (China, Singapore,…), in Africa democracy seems better suited. This is due to several factors including: the multi-ethnics nature of the countries (better representation of everyone’s interests), the need for better governance and redistribution of the riches in absence of strong political will, and pervasiveness of corruption that drives people away from the legal and institutional life.

Even though many Western universities tend to forget it, education is in general about teaching people skills (duh), thereby enhancing productivity, creativity, and exchanges. Higher education is as well crucial to bring Africa back into the world system (yes it’s been kind of left aside) and bridge the digital gap with other continents. What we need is then consistent education in ICTs on top of developing the infrastructure (optic fiber, antennas, electricity grids,…) so that people can benefit from an advanced use of ICTs and harness their economic potential.

Obviously on a priority list of fighting poverty in the African continent this comes after the most basic needs such as food, water, health, energy,… How could you possibly charge a computer’s battery without electricity in your town? Yet they did that mistake a few years ago and sent thousands of laptops.

Read here about the importance of education in fighting poverty in Kenya

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Hunger and Water

Hunger, a typical feature of African poverty

In the past 30 years only sub-Saharan Africa saw no improvement in fight against malnutrition and hunger in Africa (or several types of malnutrition). Currently there are an estimated 80% of Africans who suffer from hunger, and 30% of whom are children. Despite poverty in Nigeria and in Zimbabwe, these countries were part of the group that manage to reduce its underweight population between 1976 and 1995.

On the other hand just as many countries – a dozen – were suffering from sharp rises in under-nutrition. The worst case is that of poverty in Ethiopia which left over a million people underfed. The plight of hunger is undoubtedly one of the most severe effects of poverty in Africa, where it is incomparably harsher than in most other places.

Water

“All peoples, whatever their stage of development and their social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs”.
(Action Plan, United Nations Water Conference, Mar del Plata, 1977)

More than 30 years after this statement, more than 50% of Africans still suffer from water-related diseases (cholera, diarrhea). Although the continent is blessed with large rivers such as the Congo, the Nile, the Zambezi and the Niger, uneven geographical distribution causes sharp shortages of water in Africa. History has shown that despite technical, financial, economic and institutional support in water-related projects, poor governance has been a major factor in ruining those efforts and resources.

The end of the tunnel…?

Poverty in Africa and in the world is the primary obstacle in the provision of basic services. It affects elementary water supply, sanitation and education in incredibly diverse ways. Ultimately it becomes so all-pervasive that it overwhelms the application of the very best practices drawn from past lessons. The way out of poverty in Africa is therefore hardly imaginable without the constructive and appropriate help and cooperation of the international community, along with (increasingly) that of private businesses from other countries.

Get a better grasp of African poverty by checking out the page on Africa Facts.

 

 

 
Africa map

Darker is Poorer but some light areas are just ‘no data’ – see our Poor in a Rich World page.

A majority of the worlds poorest countries today are in Africa. Of course some African countries like South Africa and Egypt are not quite as poor as others like Angola and Ethiopia. And though in recent years absolute poverty in Africa has shown some slight falls, African income levels have actually been dropping relative to the rest of the world. So poor Africa is getting relatively poorer on average, and 2011 sees drought in North East Africa again bringing the prospect of starvation to millions in the region affecting Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya – and in Somalia religious war has been worsening the famine situation there..

 

 

 

 

 

Famine in Africa

1. The land is a major problem in Africa, with many African countries having confused land ownership so that much useful land is unused – and in some African countries where rainfall is unreliable there is still little or no irrigation of land. Africa’s natural resources have also been mostly monopolised by European and American companies largely taking money out of Africa. And African land degradation, largely due to poor land management, has mostly been worsening in recent years especially in East Africa and near the Sahara.

2. Financial aid going to African countries has often been mostly emergency food aid needed as short-term help with famines, and any longer-term aid has often been misappropriated for personal wealth by corrupt officials or for military spending. Where useful financial aid has been supplied to African countries it has often been in the form of loans with high interest rates that poor countries find too expensive a debt burden. Africa has to date attracted little foreign investment though much of that has been more stable longer-term European investment as in mining.

3. The terms of trade set by richer countries tend often to exploit poor countries and give unfairly low price for their exports of commodities such as tea, coffee, bananas and their other export products. And foreign businesses operating in Africa also often do not help the local economy as much as they easily could help. Some of these problems are of course not unique to Africa and are seen also in some non-African poor countries.

4. Education, medicine and drinking water are also major problems in poor African countries – as well as transport and energy. Diseases like AIDS, malaria and cholera are widespread with the latter two involving poor water systems. In some African countries a lack of adequate medical services is helping maintain poverty for many families.

5. Many have noted that countries in Africa have often suffered from civil wars and inadequate government, and this may be in part due to many African countries being artificial colonial creations with borders that make sustainable government more difficult. Conflict-torn countries with long running civil wars such as Angola, Burundi, Mozambique, Somalia and Uganda have had little effective government, making it very difficult to get hold of supplies or build necessary infrastructures. This has also given neighbouring countries big refugee problems. And much of Africa has also had corrupt government, like Zimbabwe. But in Africa both the wars and the corrupt governments maintaining poverty, have often been supported by richer Western governments.

But many countries in Africa are now showing some real signs of progress towards better governance. The African Union has established the voluntary self-monitoring Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) for states to conform to agreed political, economic and corporate governance values. Twenty nine of Africa’s fifty three states signed up to participate in APRM by June 2008, being – Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. This at least shows that governments of these countries are aware that government may need improving. See APRM.

Some of the poorest countries in Africa really need substantial prolonged aid to fund direct universal welfare benefit systems to help them climb out of poverty. Extreme poverty being widespread helps cause other bad things like many children being sold as slaves or used in armies and getting no education.

African poverty often means widespread hunger and starvation. And it is a general fact of poverty that if you are too poor then you may have no resources to improve that. But progress on poverty in Africa can be achieved with a bit more real effort, and is being achieved now to at least some extent in parts of Africa such as Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.

To quote Nelson Mandela,
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.

Cash-strapped African governments have to squeeze every last penny out of their agricultural sector, imposing taxes on production that help drive up food prices and help drive down wages in Africa. In addition, African governments often have to sell their export crops for bargain prices to pay the interest on their foreign debt. Richer importing nations know that the producers have to sell, and so offer artificially low prices. And while spending on education and health need increasing in much of Africa to help reduce long-term poverty, aid loans often require their governments to reduce spending.

African farmers especially need to use more fertilisers, but they are too expensive for many to use. On average Africa did make some poverty progress in the years 2000 to 2008, but have undone some of that progress since. In many poorer African countries, the current world recession is causing family remittances from overseas workers or migrant workers to fall now. As more migrant workers lose jobs in South Africa, Western Europe and the USA, remittances to families in the poorest African countries are being hit. And aid has not been rising recently.

While different African countries are affected by poverty somewhat differently, and need different means of handling their poverty problems, one appropriate aid mechanism could be the most effective. A substantial regular annual non-loan financial aid package should be agreed by the main aid-donor governments, and be provided only through the African Union for appropriate distribution to African countries each year. And the African Union should be required to monitor and report on such aid’s effectiveness in reducing poverty in each African country.