Poverty in Africa

Peeraya Rujjanavet & Warisara Saetang

Mahidol University International College

ICGC 101 Academic Writing and Research I

Ms. Mariejoy San Buenaventura

March 27, 2020

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Poverty in Africa

Poverty, in its most extreme form, is the lack of the most basic needs of human beings

including nutritious food, clean water, shelter, clothings and healthcare. Africa is considered the

poorest continent in the world, about half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is living on

less than $1.90 per day. Poverty has been a constant issue in Africa for many years which

presents no sign of economic development no matter how long the time has passed. Although the

government has implemented several measures on poverty eradication, it seems beyond their

control on account of fundamental governance failure. Therefore, the purpose of the essay is to

examine what are the contributing factors of poor living conditions, who are affected by poverty

and how will this problem be tackled.

Africa has a long history of extreme poverty which has brought disaster to numbers of

Afican citizens. Speaking of which, it indeed did not stem from merely one cause. Numerous

internet articles have shown that sources that keep Africa from escaping the poverty cycle are

unsustainable governance, poor healthcare, poor education and most importantly corruption.

Sub-saharan Africa lost approximately $150 billion a year due to corruption in the countries

(Brennan, 2018). Therefore, the national political leaderships are the key factor for countries to

achieve poverty reduction in Africa by providing the social assientence, emphasizing with their

policies to ensure sustainable growth for disadvantaged people and promote the progressive

change (Institute For Security Studies, 2014). However, African states are still lacking

institutional capacity to convey the benefits and services for their citizens which result in the less

effective solution to eradicate poverty in African (Asadullah & Savoia, 2019).

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The first and foremost cause of extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is corruption. Low

rate of economic development in Africa is the result of abuse of political power by powerful

people such as government officials, elite people and police officers for illegitimate personal

gain instead of functioning the countries. According to the Global Corruption Barometer, more

than fifty percent of the African population have a similar opinion towards the government's

failure in solving corruption and instead getting worse. It also stated that a number of citizens

have no choice but to pay bribes in order to get privilege in basic social services such as

education, proper sanitation and health care (2019, as cited in Carillet, 2019). Lack of schooling

and business knowledge is another leading cause of poverty in Africa. People lack abilities and

skills in doing business. They do not know about the market prices they deal in which contribute

to being taken advantage of. In addition to entrepreneur skills deprivation, lack of proper

education in young people prevents them from learning to read, write and comprehend leading to

a high chance of job shortage, which leaves them unqualified for better-paying work. Moreover,

as many Africans are not well-educated, the majority of their land is left untouched or only being

used for cultivation, which is just enough to meet the needs of themselves and their family. No

crops were grown to sell in the market as they do not know how to make the most out of their

lands. According to Statistician-General Pali Lehohla, studies had shown that the more

knowledge a person has, the more chance of securing employment and, consequently, low

probability of living in impoverished life (as cited in Gwangwa, 2017). The on-going civil wars

are another cause of poverty in Africa which contribute to economic decline and persistent

poverty. The war has continually occurred either in the same country or with neighbouring

countries which undermines credibility in investment with foreign countries and slows down the
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countries’ economic development. The fourth cause of poverty in Africa is that it has poor health

facilities. During the incidence of disease such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, as lack of

healthcare infrastructure, multitude numbers of the poor were suffering from these infectious

diseases and there were high mortality rates during this period of time (Korankye, 2014). In the

worst case when the sole earners die, the other members in the family have no choice but to live

in poverty as they have no resources to support themselves.

African Government has to take strong action to reduce the poverty rate in Africa.

According to Knoema (n.d.), Africa has the highest fertility rate of 4.8 births per woman and

most are lack of education which results in the retaining of poverty. The government can lower

the birth rate transition through cost-effective interventions such as programs for family planning

which raise awareness and education in women. For children and families, the government can

invest in a child’s human capital (The World Bank, 2019). Moreover, the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations (2015) points out that the food imports in Africa have

increased rapidly over the past decade from approximately US$10 billion at the beginning of

2000s to US$ 35-40 billion in this recent year. It will be critical for the government to boost the

productivity of farmers by doing the public investment in more agricultural research, irrigation,

and rural area’s infrastructure and using innovation to assist the poor farmer for the better quality

product which in return, more money will go back to their citizen’s pocket and it creates the

demand for higher-value crops (The World Bank, 2019). In addition, Bicaba, Brixiova & Ncube

(2017) suggest that the government could cooperate with the intra-regional trade and flows of

foreign direct investment in the consequences which it would bring the continent to the higher

levels because it creates the relations, made them become part of the global value chain and
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reduce inequality among countries. These solutions would help African people get away from

poverty and through time, the crisis will be solved.

Some African countries have made through poverty but many are still struggling which

shows that it is impossible to end extreme poverty in Africa by 2030. Today, approximately 440

million Africans are in extreme poverty which is around 70% of the world’s poorest population

(World Poverty Clock, n.d.). According to Kharas, Hamel, Hofer & Tong (2019), more African

are escaping from extreme poverty than falling below the poverty line and by the end of this

year, the poverty reduction rate will increase over 3,000 people per day which will be in total

approximately 1 million-person reduction in 2020. In 2030 Africa will account for around 87%

of the world's poor, the other main countries are Haiti, Papua, New Guinea, Venezuela,

Afghanistan, and North Korea, as the correspondingly that many countries in Africa have shown

the result of the progress; Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mauritius, and Seychelles are now having

the poverty rate less than 3%, Mauritania and Gambia will follow those countries by 2030 and

another six additional counties will reach below 5% (Hamel, Hofer, & Tong, 2019). However,

Kharas, Hamel, Hofer & Tong (2019), suggest that it seems impossible to achieve the goals to

overcome poverty by 2030 because approximately 395 million Africans people will still tend to

live in extreme poverty which portrays 82% of the world's population that is under the poverty

line. Though this project shows that there are improvements in tackling the problem and if they

continue doing it, the eradication of Poverty in Africa is possible.

All in all, Poverty in Africa is a result of: corruption where powerful people use entrusted

power for one’s private gain, lack of education contributing to being taken advantage of easily,

On-going civil wars both inside and outside the country leads to low rate of investment, deaths
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from deficiency in healthcare infrastructure. Therefore, the government should take action to

solve this problem seriously. Some approaches to poverty issues are providing cost-effective

intervention to the family, boosting the productivity of farmers and cooperating with

intra-regional trade and flows of foreign direct investment. Although numbers of approaches

have been used to tackle poverty problems in Africa, some countries have made through it, but

many have failed in fighting against poverty. Therefore, it is hardly possible to end this extreme

poverty by 2030.
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Resources

Asadullah, M.N. & Savoia, A. (2019, March 4). Here’s how we can eradicate poverty in Africa
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Bicaba, Z., Brixiova, Z. & Ncube, M. (2017, March 20). Eliminating extreme poverty in Africa:
the role of policies and global governance. International Growth Centre.
https://www.theigc.org/blog/eliminating-extreme-poverty-in-africa-the-role-of-policies-a
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Brennan, K. (2018, January 28). Identifying the multiple causes of poverty in Africa. ​The Borgen
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Carillet, J. (2019, July 11). Where are Africa’s billions?. Transparency International.
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Gwangwa, V. (2017, August 23). Poverty linked to a lack of education, Lehohla says. IOL News.
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The World Bank. (2019, October 9). Accelerating poverty reduction in Africa: in five charts.
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