Search Helium
Search Helium
Unfortunately, poverty in Africa doesn't result from just one or two causes. There are a number
of different factors at work, all interacting with one another, and making the problem of
entrenched poverty extremely difficult to solve.
Some of the major causes of poverty include: war and armed conflict, poor farm policy, lack of
access to credit, rampant unemployment, lack of access to education, and disease.
WAR AND ARMED CONFLICT
One-fifth of all African people live in countries seriously disrupted by armed conflict. When war
is ranging all around, it's very difficult to grow crops, continue to work in an office, or earn
money. Ordinary life becomes impossible, as people are forced to flee their homes.
Thus, productivity goes down, and poverty rates shoot up. Countries at war produce an average
of 12.5 per cent less food per person than they do during peace time.
One example is Angola, where a 27-year long civil war killed half a million people and left 3.8
million people displaced. Virtually all the country's infrastructure was destroyed in the conflict,
and more than three-quarters of the population fell into extreme poverty. Today, 85% of
Angolans make their living through subsistence farming, working fields that conceal left-over
landmines.
Across Africa, most schools have to charge the students fees in order to operate. Even if the fees
are as little as $20 or $30 US for a child to attend for a year, the price of basic education can be
out of reach for many poor families. In addition to school fees, parents also have to buy
uniforms, books, and possibly lunch for their students, and many families simply can't afford it.
Children who don't have even an elementary-school education have little hope of finding steady
work when they grow up. If they join the ranks of the chronically unemployed (or
underemployed), their children too may miss out on schooling, and the cycle will continue.
DISEASE
According to the UN, about 2 million African people die each year just from AIDS, and 24
million more get infected with HIV. Deaths from malaria also total about 2 million, although a
higher percentage of those killed by the parasite are small children. Each disease costs Africa
about $10-12 billion US every year in lost GDP, and plunges more families and whole
communities deeper into poverty. Africa also suffers from epidemics of cholera, measles, and
polio disease and poverty is easy to see. Workers who are weakened by AIDS or malaria miss
work, and they typically don't have paid sick leave. Their employers lose their productivity,
decreasing profits. Other family members also have to stay home from work or school to take
care of the ailing person, so the loss expands. In many villages, elderly grandparents who have
lost several adult children to AIDS are working to feed 8 or 10 orphaned grandchildren. It's
almost impossible for them to feed all those mouths and scrape together all those school fees.
CONCLUSION
Poverty in Africa is a complex problem, born of many interlocking causes. It will be difficult to
solve, but the world must continue to try. It's unconscionable that so many people continue to
live in such grinding poverty.