Poverty in Africa

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.

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)

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.

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).

End Hunger & Extreme Poverty

                                                        

INTRODUCTION

Over the years, we've been inundated with the statistics and the pictures of poverty around the world-so much so that many people in both the North and South have come to accept it as an unfortunate but unalterable state of affairs. The truth, however, is that things have changed in recent years. The world today is more prosperous than it ever has been. The technological advances we have seen in recent years have created encouraging new opportunities to improve economies and reduce hunger.

 

 

Did you know that in our world today:

• One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes. That’s 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. (Reality of Aid 2004)

• Every year more than 10 million children die of hunger and preventable diseases – that’s over 30,000 per day and one every 3 seconds.(80 Million Lives, 2003 / Bread for the World / UNICEF / World Health Organization)
  

POVERTY in SRI LANKA

The rapid growth of Sri Lanka’s economy since the war ended last May has given many people an unprecedented sense of optimism about the future. Drive around Colombo and you see a prosperous capital city reaping its peace dividend. Business is booming, the stock market is soaring, and tourism is on the rise. However, the country’s recent success can blind us to the obvious reality: Sri Lanka is still a very poor country.

How poor? According to a 2009 estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita is US $2,041, which makes the country the 119th wealthiest in the world out of a total of 180 countries.

While its GDP per capita places Sri Lanka well ahead of India ($1,033) and Pakistan ($1,017), it still means that the country ranks in the bottom third of all countries — literally the “third world.” The wealthiest country, as estimated by the IMF, is Luxembourg, with a GDP per capita of $94,418, followed by Norway, Qatar, and Switzerland. Singapore is placed 23rd with a GDP per capita of $34,346 and the Maldives is placed 93rd ($3,893).

But GDP per capita doesn’t tell the whole story, because it doesn’t show how wealth is distributed within a country. According to government figures, 15 percent of Sri Lankans live below the official poverty line of Rs. 3,087 a month. The World Bank puts the figure higher, at 23 percent. The UN estimates that 45 percent of Sri Lankans live on less than Rs. 226 ($2) a day. Poverty is concentrated in rural areas, as well as the North and East, which suffered for decades during the war.

Moreover, the country remains stunningly unequal, with the richest 10 percent of the people holding nearly 40 percent of the wealth and the poorest 10 percent holding barely over one percent. Based on the Gini Index of wealth distribution, Sri Lanka is the 27th most unequal country in the world — more unequal than Cambodia (50) Thailand (51) and India (79).

Wealth in Sri Lanka is also stratified geographically, with the richest families mostly clustered in urban areas and the poorest often living in remote rural regions. Although the official poverty rate is 15 percent, that rate is much higher in Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces, where between a quarter and a third of all people live below the poverty line, according to the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). In contrast, the more urbanized Western and Eastern Provinces have poverty rates below 10 percent. Because of the war, there are no accurate statistics on the Northern Province. According to Priyanthi Fernando, the Executive Director of CEPA, the tea estates are some of the poorest areas of the country.

“Small tea holders in the South are doing well, but tea holders upcountry aren’t doing so well,” Fernando said. “There’s been very little opportunities for people who rely on farming to improve. Most households in these areas have a mixed portfolio of livelihood — they don’t rely on one thing. But if your portfolio depends on rain-fed agriculture alone, the chances that you are poor are much higher. If you depend solely on the rain you are much more vulnerable.”

The government’s principal poverty-alleviation programme is Samurdhi, which was founded by President Ranasinghe Premadasa as the Janasaviya programme. On March 25, the government raised the minimum monthly Samurdhi allowance from Rs. 175 to Rs. 1,000. 1.6 million people receive some form of benefit from the welfare programme, which costs the state Rs. 798 million per month. According to Fernando, Samurdhi plays a crucial role in helping the poorest people in the country meet their basic needs.

“One of the big criticisms is that Samurdhi isn’t targeted properly — that it only reaches a small percentage of people who need it,” she said. “However, the most recent data from Badulla shows that the targeting has been largely successful. The people getting Samurdhi are mainly the poor, but there are many poor not getting it. It isn’t going to rich people. The Samurdhi benefit is multiple. It’s not just the grant — there is a savings component, and a loan component. However much it’s criticized, most NGOs, when they want to count the number of poor people in the country, they use the Samurdhi criteria.”

The consequences of widespread poverty can be seen everywhere in Sri Lankan society. Malnourishment is a fact of life for millions of people. A recent study by university researchers showed that out of a sample of 330 mothers in the Kalubowila, Nagoda, Matara, Ratnapura, and Balangoda hospitals, 38 percent of newborn babies were not the proper size. 17 percent of the babies were not the proper weight.

However, there is reason to believe that with the war over Sri Lanka may begin to pull itself out of the poverty that has shadowed its history. According to Fernando, the statistics show that poverty is decreasing. With the exception of Nuwara Eliya and the Uva Province, most parts of the country are seeing improvement — especially places like Hambantota and Puttalam. However, even a cursory glance at Sri Lanka’s economic statistics shows that the country still is a long way from being the “economic power house in South Asia”— the goal of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Unless more attention is paid to rural poverty, millions of people are at risk of being left behind by the soaring economy. If Sri Lanka becomes a power house, these will be the people knocking loudly on the door.