poverty in Africa

POVERTY IN AFRICA

                Relative poverty is a term used on the news to mean people who have less money than those living around them. This term is generally used when talking about ‘Uk child poverty’. Politicians even argue whether such differences in wealth are a good or bad thing to compare Africa with other climes.

                Absolute poverty is different. Some people are  poorer. For them, a whole week’s earning is less than the amount someone in the UK, on the legal minimum wage, earns in an hour 5.93 pounds. Absolute poverty means people whose income is less than 75p-1.50 pounds a day is tagged extreme poverty according to the World Bank analysis of poverty in the African continent recently.

                How bad is poverty in Africa? The situation is improving, but Africa remains the poorest continent on Earth. But what many people may not know are the effects of poverty in Africa including hunger, disease and a lack of basic necessities

                Seventy five percent of the World’s poorest countries are located in  Africa, including Zimbabwe, Liberia and Ethiopia. For the past two years, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second largest country is ranked the poorest in the World with a Gross Domestic Product based on purchasing power parity of $394.25 in 2013.

                According to the Gallup World, in 2013, the 10 countries with the highest proportion of residents living in extreme poverty were all in Sub Saharan Africa. Extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.25 or less a day. In 2010, 414 million people were living in extreme poverty across Sub Saharan Africa. According to the World Bank, those living on $1.25 a day accounted for the 48.5% of the population in that region in 2010.

                Of the 738 million people globally who lack access to clean water, 37% are living in Sub Saharan Africa. Poverty in Africa results in over 500 million people suffering from waterborne diseases. According to the U.N  Millennium Project, more than 50% of Africans have a water related illness like Cholera.

                More than one million people, mostly children under the age of five, die every year from Malaria deaths in  Africa.  Africa  alone account for 90% of all Malaria deaths worldwide. Eighty percent of these victims are African children. The U.N Millennium Project has calculated that a child in Africa dies from Malaria every 30 seconds, or about 3.000 everyday.

                Thirty eight percent of the world’s refugees are located in Africa. Due to the continuing violence, conflict and widespread human rights abuses, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHR) reports that 11 million people, including stateless people and returnees exist in Africa.

                Women in Sub Saharan Africa are over 230 times more likely to die during childbirth or pregnancy than women in North America. Approximately one in 16 women living in Sub Saharan Africa will die during childbirth or pregnancy. Only one in 4,000 women in North America will.

                IS there hope for Africa? Despite an overall picture of the economic growth for the continent. Some Africans are being left behind. Two thirds of the United Nations least developed Nations are in Africa.