2019-2020

I. Poverty in Africa
Poverty is the lack of provision to satisfy basic human needs such as
nutrition, clean water, shelter and more. Africa is by the poorest
continent on the planet. 28 of world’s poorest countries are in Africa.
Half of the African population lives in poverty. These people do not
have access to basic human needs. 47 percent of the African
population is living on $1.90 or less a day.

ABSTRACT
Africa is one of the poorest continent
of the world. Despite its important
natural resources this continent is
facing extreme poverty due to the bad
governance, the conflicts and the lack
of employment opportunities.
Nevertheless, Africa can overcome
these difficulties and get developed if
only our leaders endeavor to take up
the challenges we are facing and find
effective solutions to solve our
problems.
Author: IDE SALIFOU ABDOURAHAMANE
Age: 16
Nationality: Nigerien

POVERTY IN AFRICA
TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. THE CAUSES OF POVERTY IN AFRICA

Increased unemployment……………………………………………………………………….1
Conflicts …………………………………………………………………………………………2
Corruption……………………………………………………………………………………….3
Lack of education……………………………………………………………………………….4
Malnutrition and Hunger……………………………………………………………………….5
Malaria disease………………………………………………………………………………….6

II. GROWING THE ECONOMY FOR ENDING POVERTY AND DEVELOP AFRICA
 The causes of poverty in Africa

1 INCREASED UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment is undoubtedly the main culprit which leads to poverty in Africa. It is a known fact that
graduates and skilled labor in Africa are unable to find work due to the lack of opportunities and scope
here. The governments in Africa has failed to create enough jobs for its growth population and this has
further prompted people to participate to unethical means for earning money. Blood money rituals and
armed robbery has grown many folds in different parts of Africa and women in some regions are forced
to turn into prostitution so that they are able to provide their families with food and shelter. With a large
party of its people sitting unemployed, poverty rates in Africa are becoming larger than ever.
2 CONFLICTS IN AFRICA

Africa is a diverse continent with various ethnic groups, religions, socio-cultural affiliations. More than
half of the nations in Africa have been affected by conflicts. Africa is among those continents with
unending conflicts. Among the conflicts that exist in Africa include civil wars, for instance Somalia,
conflict between nations, for instance, Eritrea and Ethiopia border wars and the continuing civil wars in
Nigeria and Sudan’s Darfur area. This creates untold desolation and poverty among the inhabitants. The
main cause of unending conflicts originates from the bad economic performance. African Nations are
known for having huge international debts, corruption of public funds, and poor flow of private capital.
Because of high poverty levels in African nations, the rich who are the few become the ruling class,
resulting into clashes among the rich and the poor economic classes. Moreover, this leads to tribal or
ethnic conflicts as people begin to compete themselves for the limited resources like power and wealth.
Conflict can have direct impact on food security, drastically compromising access to food. Often forced
to flee as violence escalates, people uprooted by conflict loose access to their farms and businesses, or
other means of local food production and markets. Abandoned fields and farms no longer provide food
to broader distribution circuits. As a result, food supplies to distributors may be cut off, and the many
population dependent on them are unable to find sufficient food. Conflict often puts constraints on
employment and income opportunities, which affects individual’s ability to acquire food. Conflicts can
also affect exports and imports when county’s infrastructures, resources (land, equipment, etc.) are
destroying. This leads to limited Food availability and affordability. In 2017 conflict was the major
cause of food insecurity in 11 African nations which totaled about 37 million, Northern Nigeria,
Democratic republic of Congo, Somalia and South Sudan account for the majority of these individuals.
Millions of people have forced to run away their homes in fear of their lives (massive displacements)
and conflict has led to the death of many individuals. Conflict also disconnects businesses from their
clients. Moreover, roads and communication networks are destroyed or barred with further cripples
these businesses. Industries collapse, people lose jobs and investors lose confidence in the affected
region thus pushing the affected region down economy. Despite the conflict, military forces were well-
financed and well-equipped.
3 CORRUPTION IN AFRICA

The high poverty levels in Africa have also been caused by corruption. A survey conducted by world
anti-corruption revealed that they were very high corruption cases in Africa nations. Among the
respondents who were interviewed 42 percent of them confirmed that they were asked to give bribe in
order to be employed. Countries in Africa that were reported to have the highest incidences of corruption
were Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon (Akindola 2010). This is due to the fact that many people in Africa
believe that family relations are more essential than county identity. Therefore, those in power use bias
and bribery to gain their lives at the expense of their country. An example the existing Zimbabwe
situation. The president of Zimbabwe, Doctor Robert Mugabe and his close allies are cashing the
nation’s resources at the expense of the entire nation. At the moment Zimbabweans are among the
poorest individuals globally due to corruption practices of Robert Mugabe’s rule. Poverty perpetuates,
with governments confiscating donations from abroad, local militias slaughtering villagers and cultural
leaders denying women right and safety to attend school.
4 LACK OF EDUCATION

Majority of the families in Africa are unable to send their child to school due to their inability to pay for
the fees, books, uniforms and food primarily. Parents are often seen selling their land and property to
send their kids to school and they have to wait for one child to be withdrawn for the second one to be
sent. In Africa girls faced pressure to fulfil traditional roles as the housekeepers and mother. This
represent a challenge for their education. In poor families, girls are often submitting to forced marriages
and early. The schools don’t provide proper facilities, including sanitation facilities to the girls. The
limited available money is investing typically in boys and men. The girl risk sexual assault on the way
to school or from male peers or from teachers. For instance, only one disabled woman is educating for
every five disabled men. These facts explain the high level of illiteracy rate on the continent.

5 MALNUTRITION AND HUNGER

5.1 MALNUTRITION
One fifth of people living in Africa are considered malnourished. This gives to the continent the highest
rate of malnourished people worldwide. More than 30 percent of African children suffer from growth
disorders such as stunting due to their Chronic malnutrition. This disease causes physical and mental
underdevelopment in a child.
 Chronic undernutrition contributes to stunting in children under five years of age. This means that
the child is too short for his or her age, which can have long term negatives impact on Heath and
development.
  Acute undernutrition contributes to wasting in children under
5 years. This means the child is too thin for his or her weight. Childhood wasting is attributed to
higher risk of disease or death.

Poverty is one of malnutrition causes and poverty is by far being eradicated. Poverty alone does not
lead to malnutrition but it seriously affected the availability of adequate amounts of nutrious food for
the most vulnerable population. Lack of access to food causes malnutrition. Most major food annutrition
crises do not occur because of a lack of food, but rather people are too poor to obtain enough food.
Non availability of food in market, difficult access to market due to lack of transportation and
insufficient financial resources are all factor contributing to the food insecurity of the most vulnerable
population.
Certain illnesses and infections such as tuberculosis, measles, and diarrhea are directly linked to and one
cause of malnutrition acute malnutrition. A combination of disease and malnutrition weakens the
metabolism creating a vicious cycle of infection and undernourishment, leading to illness HIV and AIDS
have become a leading cause of acute malnutrition. If a HIV-infected child becomes acutely
malnourished, her/his diminished nutritional state will increase the likelihood and infections, and may
lower the effectiveness of medications either anti-retroviral treatment for other illnesses and infections.
The combination of acute malnutrition and HIV and AIDS thus considerably increases the chances of
morbidity, placing the child at a higher risk of death.
Lack of safe drinking. Water is synonymous of life. Lack of potable water, poor sanitation, and
dangerous hygiene practices increase vulnerability to infections and water-borne diseases, which are
direct causes of acute malnutrition.

5.2 HUNGER

According to the FAO definition, people suffer from hunger if their daily energy intake is below what
they would need for a healthy and active live. The lower limit is an average of 1,800 calories per day.
According to this measure, 226.7 million people are starving in Africa. The countries most affected by
hunger and extreme poverty in Africa are mainly those located south of the Sahara. One in four people
suffers here from hunger. Hunger in Africa has many causes:
The reason for the widespread hunger in Africa are complex and are not, as often assumed, a lack of
agricultural productivity or difficult climate conditions. Sub-Sahara African has millions of hectares of
fertile soil. The African continent could feed itself. However, several facts prevent food self-sufficiency
and a victory in the fight against hunger.
Population growth: in Africa the number of people is growing rapidly, but the production is not keeping
up.
Climate change: Some countries, such as Zambia, enjoy relative peace and stability, yet are often plagued
by hunger due to drought or floods. Too much or too little rainfall can destroy harvests of substantially
reduce the amount of animal Pasture available.
Poor nutrition: when we talk about hunger, we were not just talking about access to food, but also
access to nutrients. In order to thrive, human need a range of foods providing a variety of essential
health benefits. Poor families often rely on just one or two staple foods like corn or wheat – which
means they are not getting enough of critical macronutrients like protein, and they are also missing out
on lots of important vitamins and minerals. The less nourished and balanced a person's diet, the poorer
they health will be. This results in less energy, meaning that these families will be less likely to break
the poverty-hunger cycle.
Policy: systems problem like poor infrastructures or a lack of investment in agriculture, often make it
hard for food and water to reach the population.
Lack of infrastructures: Many of African countries in which there is widespread hunger are countries in
which there is also plenty of food. Agriculture is the leading economic industry in several of the
hungriest African nations including, Niger, Ethiopia and Somalia. The issue is not that there is a lack of
food, the issue is that they are often no reliable pathways for getting that food from the field into the
hands of people who need it most. Many hungry countries lack accessible rural roads on which food
could be transported into the countryside.

6 MALARIA DISEASE

Malaria is certainly one of Africa's greatest killers. According to the UN economists, Malaria is one of
top four causes of poverty. Every year it kills 3 million people and is estimated to cost the African
economy $30 billion per year. Malaria is often referred to as the epidemic of the poor. Whilst the disease
is in large part determine mainly by climate and ecology, and not poverty per se, the impact of malaria
takes its toll on poor, those least able to afford preventatives measures and medical treatment. An
example of the connection between malaria and poverty is the sale of bad drugs to poor people.
According to WHO1 estimates, 20 percent of people who die from malaria, die because they took bad
drugs. The indirect costs of malaria include lost productivity or income associated with illness or death.
This might be expressed as the cost of lost workday or absenteeism from formal employment and the
value of unpaid work done in the home by both men and both women .in the case of death, the indirect
costs include the discounted future lifetime earnings for those who die.

1
WHO : World Heath Organisation
II. Growth the economy for ending poverty and develop
Africa.

 Implementing policies that increase food security: investment in Agriculture and extension
leading to increases food availability.
 Creating policies that will guarantee the stability of the price, it will help farmers to produce
more and the poor to have access to food. The volatility of the price has impact on the most
vulnerable consumer, and food security. With the volatility of the price the poor consumer will
buy foodstuffs at a higher price.
 Governments in Africa have to invest in researches to improve farming: They can create IRIFD
(International Researches Institute for Farming Development) this institute should have lead
researches of good quality in all African nations. Through their researches we can adequate the
farming to the different climate changes and find irrigation systems that would give to the
farmer’s opportunities to farm without waiting rain.
 Governments in Africa could have confidence in Agriculture sector: this sector contributes in
GDP at a value of 20 percent to 60 percent. If we use the money destinies to import food in
Agriculture development, we will produce more.
 Introducing fair trade policies for African countries to trade with nations abroad will grow
Africa's economy faster than aid.
 Donor support should not be relied on forever but instead be used to build institutions and
economy.
 African leaders should therefore endeavor to eliminate malaria. Such an achievement would
save millions of lives and eradicate the vicious cycle of poverty and disease continue to grip the
continent by saving $30 billion per year that it loses in productivity and medical costs every
year.
 The education that Africa needs is one that is skills based; technologically grounded and global
competitive. There is a need of invest in reinventing the educational system.
  Using resakss data especially eAtlas will permit to the governments to have information on
African’s economy, this is going to help them to take important decisions to develop the
continent.
 The government should promote the entrepreneurship of young to create a lot of new jobs to its
wide population.

Africa have the potential to rise above any other continent if only it laid emphasis on shunning
corruption, providing basic amenities including clean water, food, shelter, energy, education
and security for all.