Student #: 34092048 Carmen Mohangi

Assignment Unique#: 843051 GGH2601 Exam portfolio

Part 1
Discuss how technology can be used to improve service provision in terms of health services
and infrastructure in rural Africa where people lack basic health services.

Developing African countries have embraced the technology of e-Health and m-Health
applications in which they use medical informatics and public health through the use of the
internet as a means to improve primary healthcare delivery and public health for their
population. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines e-health as the use of information
and communication technologies (ICTs) for health. It enables public health and primary
healthcare through activities namely, disease surveillance, primary health data acquisition and
analysis, support of community health workers, teleconsultation, tele-education, research, and
patient management. It also involves the care for a patient via remote methods using ICT. It is
regarded as a more efficient means of delivering healthcare than transporting a patient from
or a medical specialist to rural or remote locations. Taking its cue from the developed world,
sub-Saharan African countries are embracing e-Health as a means to improve accessibility to
quality and equitable healthcare, especially for poor and vulnerable communities. These
solutions use several technological solutions namely, media, radio, fixed telephones,
television and other devices for text messaging, teleconferencing, videoconferencing and
sharing through e-health.

e-Health tools like mobile and fixed phones, voice over internet protocol, text and multimedia
messaging encourage communication between healthcare providers and their clients, sharing
of information and knowledge among healthcare providers and establishing of better
healthcare for patients. The internet as a communication tool has also contributed to better
disease management. Patients with chronic conditions can access treatment plans and
individual medical records, consult with specialists at their convenience and access
information on good healthy nutrition. Telemedicine services can potentially remedy some of
the healthcare challenges in developing countries, especially in Africa, where distance, cost
of equipment, time, limited human resources and lack of e-Health strategy remain major
barriers that contribute to the poor quality of healthcare.

While the potential of e-Health for sub-Saharan Africa is great, its uptake has been poor due
to the excessive burden of disease in Africa, the shortage of health professionals for rural
areas; a rapidly growing population which is outstripping the production of health workers;
the low median age of people in sub-Saharan Africa of 19.5 years which, associated with
poverty, results in low tax bases; unstable power provision; high telecommunication cost;
lack of government will; and civil unrest. This frequently results in damage to infrastructure.
However, opportunities exist as connectivity infrastructure (both internet and cellular phone
based) grows and becomes cheaper, and widespread m-Health research in Africa affords the
chance to leapfrog older, more expensive solutions.

Landlocked Uganda with a population of 41.2 million people and 85% live in rural areas. The
median age is 15 years. There are only eight physicians per 100 000 people who work in a
pluralistic health system with a government-funded public sector, and private for profit and
not for profit sectors supplemented by traditional and complementary medicine.

The public health system is does not work well, due in part to poor transport and
communication systems and staff shortages, with 44% of the established positions within the
healthcare system vacant. The population majority is reliant on nurses, aid workers and

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traditional birth attendants for healthcare. Therefore, the Government of Uganda views e-
Health as a platform to improve healthcare delivery by allowing doctors to consult and
diagnose remotely, access patients’ medical information, provide district health information
surveillance data and in addition facilitate research studies. The national data transmission
backbone and e-Government infrastructure project (NBI/EGI) connect Uganda to
neighbouring countries and links major towns, cities and government ministries and
departments, with 48 government departments and six universities currently connected.

Several studies conducted in developing countries, including Uganda, have demonstrated an

increasing application of e-Health systems for healthcare delivery. The Government of
Uganda recognises e-Health as a tool to improve health services delivery to its citizens, but
the country’s e-Health implementation status is unknown, and barriers and opportunities for
sustainable e-Health implementation have not been documented. These studies have also
displayed that the current status of e-Health implementation within Uganda and documents
the barriers and opportunities to sustain e-Health intervention programmes in Uganda. This
will inform policy- and decision-makers about critical areas of focus when designing and
implementing sustainable e-Health innovations to strengthen healthcare delivery.

Another example of technology is Telehealth systems. This was implemented in the 1980’s.
It involved a teleconferencing link established between University of Nairobi, Makerere
University and their Canadian counterparts failed because of political turbulence. The
programme provided for personal physician collaboration medical staff from Uganda and
Kenya received training in certain, while those from Canada served as visiting faculty at the
different universities. International and local partners together with UNESCO funded a three-
year telecentre project at Uganda’s Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecentre (MCT) to
provide services such as printing, internet/emails, and telephone services. Also, telemedicine
services were offered between Nakaseke hospital and Mulago national referral hospital,
aimed at improving quality of life for the community. It was similar to the internet-based
telepathology link between Uganda and Germany and faced with slow internet speed. the
MCT project was constrained by poor telecommunications infrastructure, persistent power
blackouts and an illiterate community. Lack of knowledge and skills about telehealth,
absence of policy and guidelines for the use of telehealth at hospitals, have posed as major
barriers to its adoption in Africa.

Recently there is promise for m-Health interventions and increased use of mobile phone
technology in Africa in both rural and urban communities despite the poverty levels. The
evolution of the cell phone into the multi-featured smartphone makes them handy and
sophisticated devices to carry. It allows transfer of high-resolution images. These features can
facilitate health education, and store and forward telemedicine and disease prevention
initiatives.

Uganda has adopted e-Health services such as m-Health programmes to improve healthcare
delivery. However, most of such innovations are proof-of-concept, donor funded and lack
sustainability and scalability plans. Mobile phones are very flexible and cost-efficient devices
for data acquisition and storage. To that effect, a secure architecture for handling personal
health records on mobile phones was proposed. The assumption was that the cheaper
bandwidth would lead to high-speed internet to support technology-enabled services. Health
institutions, medical practitioners and other citizens – regardless of geographical location –
would be able to link with and share or seek medical expertise and knowledge. For instance, a

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doctor in one part of the country could conduct a consultation in another part of the country
via video conferencing, while health workers could acquire more knowledge and skills using
tele-education and teleconsultation.

In addition to M-health, Electronic medical records (EMRs) are used for storage,
management, and retrieval of patients’ data. Unskilled or poorly trained staff posed an
obstacle to the implementation of this system

There are several factors to sustainable e-Health programmes. It requires strategy to guide
implementation, or an evidence- based need. However, all will be futile if the setting is not
‘ready’ to use these innovations, they will not succeed. e-Health readiness assessment in
relation to physical infrastructure, technology equipment, user and managers’ skills, policies,
regulations and guidelines should be undertaken prior to implementing any e-Health
system. Three factors – all part of readiness – have been identified as hindrances to adopting
telemedicine in Uganda: lack of knowledge and skills, lack of policy and resistance from
healthcare workers. There is need for evidence of the impact of, and readiness for, e-Health
systems before further investment of resources in development and implementation of such
systems. Failure of e-Health projects has been attributed to poor initial planning and research
design, insufficient computing skills, lack of change management and lack of technology
readiness. It has been recommended that policy and healthcare managers undertake adequate
planning and make better use of their resources for successful and sustainable e-Health
projects. There is no evidence in the literature of e-Health readiness assessment having been
conducted prior to implementation of any e-Health projects in Uganda. Studies have shown
how a few developing countries example Ethiopia, South Africa are successfully adopting e-
Health systems. Developing countries like Uganda should learn from the experiences of such
countries to innovate and implement their own sustainable e-Health programmes.

The implementation of technology has proven to be significant to primary health in Africa.

The implementation of e-Health and m-Health solutions that were donor funded and lacked
sustainability. e-Health implementations in Africa have lacked prior planning stages of need
and readiness assessment.

Generally, lack of adequate infrastructure is one of the biggest most basic impediments to
economic growth in most Sub-Saharan African countries (United Nations 2004). In contrast
to the increasingly scientific and knowledge-based world, businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa
are disadvantaged by the fact their least world’s least developed information and
communication infrastructure, except of South Africa, the region has the world’s least
developed information and communications infrastructure. Poor infrastructure in cities affects
the economic performance of the private and living conditions of citizens. Increase of slums
means that hundreds of thousands of people live in unacceptable housing structures
characterised by lack of facilities like sewerage, electricity, water or paved roads (World
Bank 2005). An example is Harare where reception of migration of people put enormous
pressure on the Harare Municipality for the supply of amenities such as housing, clinics,
transport, health facilities and water and sewage infrastructure. The shortage of housing
forced impoverished urban arrivals to construct illegal shelters leading to increasing shanty
dwellings in the city (Colquhoun 1993).

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References:

http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1560-
683X2018000100010#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20e%2Dhealth,a%20distance%20(M
ugo%202014).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1761894/

https://www.who.int/ehealth/en/

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Assignment Unique#: 843051 GGH2601 Exam portfolio

Part 2
Evaluate how urbanization in Africa increases poverty in urban areas and refer to examples
of specific urban areas. Further discuss possible strategies to mitigate urbanization.

Urbanisation, the cause for poverty in Urban Africa

Africa has gradually grown into an urban continent with an average annual growth rate of 3.3
per cent of urban dwellers between 1990 and 2000, the highest in the world (Pieterse 2010).
This expansion has exceeded Africa’s ability to create employment for demand of job
seekers. Employment is a huge challenge for the unskilled rural migrants and large numbers
of school - leavers of both rural and urban origin remain unemployed for several years after
graduation. The urban unemployed people find shelter with and depend on relatives. As a
result, the cities are unable to meet service delivery needs. Some survive by joining the
informal economy and becomes part of the urban poor. Africa’s Urban poverty has many
elements and causes. Its main features are deprivation and exclusion. African Cities pose
anonymous and impersonal in which poverty has dimensions of both material and
psychological deprivation. The urban poor find insecure shelter in overcrowded slums that
are characterised by lack of water and sanitation, electricity, employment, security and social
inclusion. In addition, urban poverty includes hunger, poor health due to nutritional
deficiencies and unhealthy living conditions as well as limited access to school and health
services. Women and children are often the most vulnerable.

The worst consequence of increasing African urban poverty is the growing number of street
children in African cities. Some of these children come from home with families but survive
by begging or casual work, many have been deserted or orphaned whose only solution is to
live on the street. They do not have the option of school and are most prone to abuse,
prostitution, and crime in order to survive. In post-war countries, street children are one of the
most visible legacies of armed conflict like that of Sudan and Libya. Known as “child
soldiers” who are often alienated, traumatized and habituated into violence, present a
daunting challenge (Rakisits 2008).

Examples of Urban caused poverty in Africa

The life of this informal economy has become an inseparable part of urbanisation in Sub-
Saharan countries. The informal economy employs 60 per cent on average of the urban
workforce in Sub-Saharan Africa and yet it accounts for less than one quarter of the urban
economic growth output. In Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it may provide urban
employment for as much as 80 per cent of the workforce.

According to a June 2005 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), in June
2005 that 3 to 4 million Zimbabweans work in the informal sector employment. They go on
to support another 5 million. In contrast, the formal sector employed about 1.3 million people
(ZCTU 2005).

The informal economy is characterised by low productivity, many from the urban workforce
that are working part time in the informal economy, ease of entry, reliance on indigenous
resources to the country, individual or family ownership of enterprises, small-scale operation,
labour intensive and adapted technology, skills acquired outside the formal school system or
training programs and operations within unregulated and non-competitive markets. Women
are active participants in the informal economy. In some instances, poor women who lack

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other employment opportunities often resort to operating as commercial sex workers. These
features cause exposure to disease, abuse.

Rising crime and human insecurity

Rising crime and human insecurity are also products of Urbanisation caused poverty. These
acts of crime and violence scare off to investors have as some larger cities like Largos in
Nigeria literally become ungovernable. So much so that although provision of security is one
of the fundamental responsibilities of the state, this issue has not received adequate political
attention. Over the years, the incidences of crime and the degree of violence have increased
tremendously in many of African cities. Many African cities experience a wide range of
criminal activities ranging from the petty to the armed and organized. Although theft is the
most common crime, but some criminal gangs have graduated to drug trafficking and money
laundering. Crime is fuelled by poor pay, inadequate training of police, and deficiencies in
essential infrastructure example the absence of streetlights

Although the most common victims of crime are women, children and the elderly, urban
insecurity is not limited to these vulnerable groups. Insecurity is widespread and felt by a
high proportion of citizens.

Infrastructure and services

As a result of widespread crime, many of the urban poor are forced to live in situations of
extreme human insecurity, sheltered in informal settlements usually on the outskirts of cities,
due to the shortage of affordable housing. These settlements are usually illegal and so the
official response has often been to try to destroy them or force inhabitants to leave. An
example is Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Clean Up) in Zimbabwe in 2005. It began
in the capital, Harare and quickly developed into a deliberate nationwide campaign in which
government destroyed what they termed illegal vending sites, structures and other informal
business premises and home. This resulted in the displacement of hundreds of people (UN-
HABITAT 2005). Efforts such as bulldozing, smashing and burning housing structures were
used to displace hundreds of people. This incident must be viewed within the wider context
of the urbanisation crisis in Africa. The social, economic and political circumstances of the
operation that took place were not specific to Zimbabwe. They share many common elements
with historical and present trends of the quick and chaotic urbanisation occurring in many
African countries and cities (Obeng-Odoom 2011).

I use Zimbabwe as an example once again of. It is on the growing list of cities and ‘mega
cities’ of the global south, whose countries are known for an ever-increasing crisis of
deficient provision of basic services (Musemwa 2010). This list includes cities such as Lagos,
Nairobi, Kumasi, Maputo and Luanda, amongst others. In these cities, observance of rural
habits by large numbers of people that are used to living in an urban environment, together
with lack of maintenance, has further added to the decay of physical infrastructure in cities.
This has posed a threat to overall human security and opposes the attainment of sustainable
development. The case of social services is the same in that there is a high rate of growth of
urban settlements. Therefore, this has had many consequences for social services such as
education, health and care for the poor and elderly. In many African countries, governments
have been unable to cope with the rising demand for social services. The bridge between the
growth of the urban population and the availability of public resources cannot be formed. In
some countries, the consequences of this mismatch have been increased by policy choices.

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These give low priority to the social sectors as compared to other areas of public expenditure,
as well as national security. Many countries lack funds for new investments in schools and
medical facilities. The overall result is overcrowded classrooms, lack of educational
materials, poorly trained and poorly paid teachers, and lack of medicines and other medical
supplies. The quality of service continues to worsen in many countries. This increases the
breakdown of social capital and overall human security. This has rendered many African
countries helpless against consequences of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Several countries have
high rates of HIV-AIDS infection (Heinecken 2001). Health care services in many countries
are stretched beyond their resources as growing numbers of HIV-AIDS patients take up
nearly all available urban hospital beds (UNAIDS 2011). The HIV-AIDS epidemic increases
health expenditures at the individual, municipal and national levels, thereby using up
resources that could have been used for industrial investment. Social services are affected
again as many health personnel, teachers and students comprise a significant proportion of
those who are infected and dying in increasing numbers. Many of these professionals take
extended leave or give up work to care for the infected family members. The impact of HIV-
AIDS exceeds the social sectors. HIV-AIDS is a major killer, reducing life expectancy and so
leaving orphans and generally overthrowing traditional mechanisms of social protection. It
has also reduced productivity and incomes. This in turn effects the overall sustainable
economic development capability. In addition, HIV-AIDS increases the ratio of dependents
to workers. This results in lower savings and widens the gap between savings and investment
(UNAIDS 2011).

Opportunities for mitigation

There are many opportunities for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen service
delivery and combat the challenge of human insecurity. Housing challenges are at the root of
the problem and should be tackled first. By addressing housing first, water, sanitation issues
and infrastructural development must be taken into consideration. The need for developing
employment options is a must. The high rates of unemployment and limited economic
opportunities have created a potentially explosive social problem in many African cities,
especially given the particularly high levels of youth unemployment (Eguavoen 2010). This
has resulted in the need for generating economic growth and employment in urban areas
throughout the continent. For this to be accomplished, significant expansion of the formal
private sector, which remains underdeveloped in most African countries is a must.

Realistically, this would entail the encouragement and facilitation of much higher levels of
private investment. At this point it must be noted that, countries cannot compete
internationally due to its largely informal economy. The pressure will be placed on
government to create an able environment for private enterprise and investment. Government
must provide national and local policies as they have a significant impact in this regard.

In order to maximise the benefits of urban life, as well as to minimize the adverse effects of
living in close proximity to and in slums, adequate and efficient essential services must be
prioritised. Urban planning must involve proper designation of the appropriate separation of
residential from industrial quarters. It must also include infrastructure for transport,
communication, and other essential utilities including the supply of electricity, water, and the
disposal of sewage and other waste. On the social side, municipalities need to provide
facilities for various levels of education and health services. While some services such as
telecommunications and utilities may be more efficiently provided by private enterprises,

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social services must continue to be the responsibility of public authorities. The concentration
of urban settlements should make it more economical and feasible to provide all these
essential services. In practice however, due to financial limitations and capacity constraints,
most African cities are incapable of providing basic services to their citizens. Responsibility
for some of these services is either shared or exclusively the preserve of central governments.

Transport cost, corruption, poor service delivery and government inefficiencies have a
negative impact on enterprise and production. It is therefore crucial that governments aim to
improve these sectors if they wish the formal employment market to thrive For its part, the
private sector in Sub-Saharan Africa has to continuously increase its efficiency and
productivity if it is to be internationally competitive. Government should implement policies
that aim to develop of the private sector in urban areas via means of targeted interventions.
They can also implement general policies designed to remove bottlenecks, streamline
procedures and protect property rights. Because unemployment is major in the majority of
cities, the encouragement of labor-intensive investments should be an important aspect of
public policy.

The aim of Urban migrants is to secure a better future for themselves and their families.
Governments have an obligation to create policies that permit them to accomplish this goal.
In most countries, recent democratisation and improved communication capabilities have
presented most African governments with a fresh opportunity to tackle these challenges in
partnership with civil society. In addition, urbanisation presents economic and political
opportunities for national development. In the struggle to improve service provision, citizens
employ participatory strategies as they establish community structures or elected bodies. This
process also fosters citizen engagement in national politics more generally, advancing
popular political awareness and the institutionalisation of democratic culture. With a suitable
political milieu, the economic potential of urbanisation can provide a foundation for national
growth and prosperity towards the creation of vibrant and affluent cities in Africa, and
beyond. African countries can assimilate tactics from other regions in their quest to transform
the urbanisation they are experiencing from an unbridled phenomenon to the centrepiece in
development initiatives today. Accordingly, if pragmatic efforts are made to effectively
manage urbanisation, African cities will be both sustainable and able to provide human
security to their citizens. In response to the growing threat of human insecurity, the inability
of the police to provide adequate protection, relatively well-to-do individuals and many
businesses are engaging private security firms. Urban African citizens are organising
themselves into neighbourhood-self-protection groups, some even as vigilantes. These
vigilante groups and private security firms sometimes replace the law and authority of
government agencies both at the municipal and national levels. In addition to the direct
effects of insecurity on people, crime and insecurity hamper new investment and expansion
of existing business. For African cities to be able to attract new investment and retain existing
businesses, it is imperative that crime be combated, and overall safety and public security be
restored.

The growth and development of the informal or parallel economy has become a necessary
part of urbanisation in Sub-Saharan African countries today. It is a very large part of survival
for the common man. It is pretty evident by the percentages of employed people that fall
under hat to stop this sector all together will result I dire consequences for the poor majority.

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Therefore, I feel that government should invest in ways to validify, formalised the businesses
and enterprises within the informal sector by providing them with the means, resources,
skills, and even financial boast to act and operate according to government policies.
Governments should take an active role in the management of a progressive transformation
from the informal economy into the formal economy. They should encourage the of emerging
small and medium enterprises. This can be achieved if public authorities can promote the
establishment and growth of formal small and medium scale enterprises by facilitating their
access to technology, raw materials, external markets and, especially, commercial banks and
other sources of credit. With financial intermediation especially, a range of options are
needed. For example, targeted micro-credit schemes have proven effective in assisting
segments of the population not served by traditional financial institutions. In most instances,
special attention will be required to ensure that women entrepreneurs benefit from policies
and are afforded access to services, training and credit. In African countries, the number,
location and variety of informal enterprises are unknown to government. This poses a
problem if government wishes to develop of effective policy. No policies can be devised to
create linkages between the formal and informal sectors when the locations of the informal
enterprises and their main activities are not known. There can be no meaningful training to
enhance the capacity of informal entrepreneurs without a reasonable idea of where they are or
what they do. The challenges of successful transition should not be miscalculated, especially
when high levels of informality are tr main feature of the overall environment. This process
of formalisation of enterprises involves two distinct but related aspects. It is attaining and
maintaining legal status. It starts with preliminary registration processes, procedures
concerning the location of the enterprises, health and safety standards, registrations
concerning taxes and rules related to labour. The most important is the registration of the
enterprise. The high registration fees and long processes deter many informal entrepreneurs
from seeking formal status.

Another major issue is the provision of public services in slums and illegal housing areas.
Even if permitted by government, municipal authorities fail to provide services for these
areas. In some cases, policy changes have led to large improvements. In these cases, the
provision of basic services within the slum areas has led to an overall upgrading of slums,
and even to collection of rent. Local authorities registered considerable success in providing
affordable housing through ‘site and service’ arrangements, which allow residents to upgrade
when they can afford to do so. To help reduce urban poverty, it is important that
consideration be given to improving access to basic services within entire cities. Current
managerial arrangements in many urban areas preclude this, leading to competition among
administrative structures for existing resources, often to the detriment of poor areas. Dialogue
between municipal authorities and communities, along with monitoring and feedback on
delivery, has helped to improve provision of infrastructure and service in some cities by
better defining needs, encouraging citizen participation, and reducing corruption (Babcock
2008). Throughout the world, public-private partnerships have become increasingly
important vehicles for the provision of urban infrastructure. Provided they are well designed
and managed, such ventures have generally been successful. Additionally, in many cities the
responsibility for certain functions such as waste collection have been contracted out to
private operators, with great success at improving service provision and stimulating private
enterprise.

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References

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420917302601

https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/pdf/expert/28/EGM_Joseph_Teye
_ppt.pdf

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa94fe

https://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles/10.5334/sta.ap/

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Part 3
Describe how Sustainable Development Goals can be used to help fight poverty in the
African continent.

The Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are expected to shape the African
agenda on economic, social, and environmental development for the next 15 years. The first
SDG is to end poverty in all forms everywhere. In Africa, the efforts to achieve the SDGs
will be in accordance with achieving the vision of an integrated, peaceful, and prosperous
continent, as articulated by the African Union’s Agenda 2063. This also calls for achieving
prosperity based on people-focused development. “This African Economic Conference is an
important platform for policy-makers, researchers from various institutions, and a wide
spectrum of development experts,” noted Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary of ECA. “Its
outcomes will further improve research capacity on the continent and provide policy
recommendations for African countries to tackle challenges and use opportunities to foster
economic and social development. ”Conference participants are expected to assess the impact
of current growth strategies in Africa, discuss successes and lessons learned, and identify
remaining gaps, challenges, and emerging issues.

A good example of work being achieved by the goals is in Ivory coast. The SDG Fund is
working to reduce poverty by the creation of economic and job opportunities in the San Pedro
region. It is aimed at women and children. This is an integrated approach and involves
training, engaging with the government and other leaders on reforming land tenure practices
as well as creating new income generating activities. This programme has proven to help
vulnerable groups in accessing information about their rights and providing them with legal
assistance. It also focuses on ensuring food security and improving nutrition in the poorest
of households.

Of course, in order to eradicate poverty. The SDG must target factors such as the economies,
social and delivery services of African communities and education sectors of African
countries. Since the early 2000s, Africa has maintained high rates of growth, even in the
presence of large external shocks such as the global financial crisis. Strong growth
notwithstanding, the progress with structural reforms and transformation has been more
limited. In fact in some countries, the share of manufacturing in output and employment
declined. However, growing the region’s manufacturing base, especially the ICT segment,
would lift productivity in across sectors. To effectively tackle poverty, SSA countries will
need to adopt appropriate national and regional policies and capitalize on opportunities in the
global forums. However, country-specific circumstances vary and experience shows that it is
often a unique combination of traditional and unorthodox policies that has succeeded in other
regions. In that regard, SSA countries will also need to find their own paths.

The SDG5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This includes
enrolling more children in primary school with a strong emphasis on particularly girls,
driving for the increase of the representation of women in national governments, and
reducing child and maternal deaths and the proportion of people infected with HIV. All
these factors go to eradicate poverty. In my previous answers I have stated that the
women and children make up the poorer of African communities. By targeting these
groups with the regards to education means a reduction in the chances of them remaining
in poverty.

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To eradicate poverty altogether, the SDGs aim to look at unemployment for all and not
just women as stipulated in SDG8. This is expected to be achieved via promotion of
sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth with the aim of creating productive
employment and decent work for all. In South Africa for example, there are challenges
despite efforts. The progress is that jobs are being created, but not enough to dent high
unemployment. There is a noted 16,291 million in employment in Jan-Mar 2019, compared
to 15,675 million in Jan-Mar 2016. Gross fixed capital formation to GDP (Investment) has
averaged 19% over the past 3 years. The Government has legislated minimum wage.
Domestics have workers protection. There are still challenges we face, namely,
Unemployment remains SA economy is deindustrialising, with share of manufacturing in
GDP declining from about 19,3% in 1994 to about 12% in 2017 & 2018.

Hunger is a notable result of poverty. End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture is SDG 2. Goal 2 states that by 2030 we should
end hunger and all forms of malnutrition. The proposed strategy to alleviate hunger would be
accomplishing the doubling of agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food
producers. With a strong focus on women and indigenous peoples. The goal is to
ensure sustainable food production systems, and by progressively improving land and soil
quality. Agriculture is the single largest employer in the world, providing livelihoods for 40%
of the global population. It is the largest source of income for poor rural households. Women
make up about 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, and over 50% in
parts of Africa. However, women own only 20% of the land.

Other targets include maintaining genetic diversity of seeds, increasing access to land,
preventing trade restriction and distortions in world agricultural markets to limit extreme food
price volatility, eliminating waste with help from the International Food Waste Coalition, and
ending malnutrition and undernutrition of children.

Nothing spells “POVERTY” more that no water and sanitation. The Sustainable
Development Goal Number 6 (SDG6) has eight targets and 11 indicators that will be used to
monitor progress toward the targets. Its aim is to ensure availability and sustainable
management of water and sanitation for all.
The first three targets relate to drinking water supply and sanitation. Safe drinking water and
hygienic toilets protect people from disease and enable societies to be more productive
economically. Attending school and work without disruption is critical to successful
education and successful employment. Therefore, toilets in schools and work-places are
specifically mentioned as a target to measure. "Equitable sanitation" requires addressing the
specific needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations, such as the elderly or
people with disabilities. Water sources are better preserved if open defecation is ended and
sustainable sanitation systems are implemented.
Ending open defecation will require provision of proper toilets and sanitation for African
people as well as behaviour change of the users. This will require cooperation between
governments, civil society, and the private sector.
The main indicator for the sanitation target is the "Proportion of population using safely
managed sanitation services, including a hand-washing facility with soap and water", As of
2017, two-thirds of countries lacked baseline estimates for SDG indicators on hand washing,

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Student #: 34092048 Carmen Mohangi
Assignment Unique#: 843051 GGH2601 Exam portfolio

safely managed drinking water, and sanitation services. From those that were available, the
Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) found that 4.5 billion people currently do not have safely
managed sanitation. To meet SDG targets for sanitation by 2030, nearly one-third of
countries will need to accelerate progress to end open defecation’
The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) has made it its mission to achieve SDG6.
SuSanA's position is that the SDGs are highly interdependent. Therefore, the provision of
clean water and sanitation for all is a precursor to achieving many of the other SDGs.

These goals however need full participation of African governments in order to be effective
and breaking out of and overcome traps that maintain cycles of debt, poverty, conflict and
environmental degradation. It will require political participation and accountable governance.
Africa will need individuals and communities to use the best of their indigenous knowledge,
integrated with first world technology, to accelerate its development. employment creation
and social welfare are not only the responsibility of national governments. It is the
responsibility of each individual to create a humane and compassionate society. Sometimes
this calls for extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice but most times it is the small, sustained
acts of compassion and generosity that can change lives for the better. Africa is most
fortunate to have examples of such men and women in abundance. The African continent has
a wealth of natural resources, offering many opportunities for human, social and economic
development. Its diversity of cultures and valuable indigenous knowledge provides the social
capital to realise economic growth. The key to this growth is self-help and responsible
governance for the common good.

To paraphrase the words of Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu:
“Many people have excelled almost only because someone had faith in them, believed in
them and so inspired them with a new self-belief, a new self-confidence, a new self-esteem.
The same is surely true of (a community), a nation (or a continent), which is an aggregate of
individuals.”

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Student #: 34092048 Carmen Mohangi
Assignment Unique#: 843051 GGH2601 Exam portfolio

References:

https://www.un.org/africarenewal/sites/www.un.org.africarenewal/files/Africa_Renewal_29_
3.pdf

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2020/01/20/strategies-for-delivering-on-the-
sustainable-development-goals-some-lessons-from-rwanda/

https://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/sustainable-development.html

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY
Student Name:
Student Number:
1. I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this
regard.
2. I declare that this portfolio is my own original work. Where other people’s work
has been used (either from a printed source, Internet or any other source), this has
been properly acknowledged and referenced.
3. I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person
to hand in as my own.
4. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention
of passing it off as his or her own work.

Signature:
Date: 05/06/2020

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