Poverty in Africa,

famine and disease.

In this FAO Poverty In 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.
http://world-poverty.org/povertyinafrica.aspx