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Africa Still Plagued by Suffering

Bhuwan Thapaliya - 10/11/2005

The term "poverty" is ambiguous and it conveys different meanings under different conditions on different occasions. However, it is clear that the rapid growth of poverty in parts of Africa is a gigantic hurdle in the way of development.

Parts of Africa, such as Niger and Sudan, are laced with the multidimensional problems of poverty, disease and hunger. Many of the world's poorest African nations have deteriorated further and are doing worse in 2005 than they were fifteen years ago, a U.N. report says.

What is the problem? Why is it that while some Asian nations like Bangladesh and Vietnam are making progress towards the Millennium Goals set five years ago, many of the poorest African nations are lagging further behind.

In sub-Saharan Africa, widespread conflicts, severe droughts, various diseases and economic stagnation have caused millions of people to become even poorer than they were before the U.N.'s ambitious Millennium Goals.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), states that that 34 countries are now suffering from droughts and massive food shortages and some other nations are ready to join them.

The heart breaking scenes in the worst affected countries such as Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Eritrea and Zambia make souls shudder when considering the suffocating condition of our African brothers and sisters.

"The condition in Niger, Djibouti and Sudan is reported to be deteriorating at an alarming rate. Many countries have had their worst harvests in more than a decade and are experiencing their third or fourth severe drought in a few years," the U.N. reports.

On the basis of these facts, we are forced to conclude that parts of Africa are suffering from hydra-headed problems and they may be running out of solutions.

Various reasons include the persistent process of desertification due to droughts, sky-high population growth, bad governance, corruption, and the world community's inconsistent hunger-response coordination.

The gravity of the situation is further summed up by Marc Cohen of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He told the Christian Science Monitor, "Things are moving in the wrong direction."

The pathetic state of sub-Saharan Africa is confirmed by the IFPRI's distressing report. In 1970, sub-Saharan Africa had 18 million malnourished children, but by 1997 there were more than 32 million. The global trend, meanwhile, moved in the opposite direction: 203 million hungry children in 1970 went down to 166 million in 1997, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the optimistic idea that foreign investment could be the key ingredient to development has remained a hypothesis, even after years of practice, according to the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Foreign investment in Africa reached $18 billion in 2004, compared with $14 billion in the year 2003, but little of this money is doing justice for Africa's poorest people.

The paradox is foreign developers and investors have poured billions of dollars into Africa's oil and mining industries, which often generates low tax revenues and carry high environmental hazards and social expenditures.

UNCTAD highlighted Tanzania and Ghana as examples of countries; which have experienced a boom in foreign investment -- largely in their gold industries. Still they receive as little as 5 percent of the value of their gold exports, according to UNCTAD.

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to shut the door entirely on foreign investments.

The good news is nations like South Africa and Botswana are able to ensure more benefit to their domestic economies. These two nations have scrutinized foreign investment schemes and they persuade companies to do more "value-adding" processing of diamonds domestically, rather than sending them abroad.

But the sour truth is these two nations may have done well economically, but the 2005 U.N. Human Development Report (UNDP) states that life expectancy in Botswana has fallen 20 years since the 1970s, while South Africa has dropped 35 places in the Human Development Index (HDI). These declines are mainly due to the Aids epidemic.

Unless the international community steps in with more vigor and assistance, the poorest African nations like Niger and Sudan, will continue on a downhill trend even as others progress, the U.N.DP warns.

Meanwhile in the west, anti-poverty campaigners are already claiming that the U.N. has failed to live up to its promises to take decisive steps to reduce poverty.

Such claims are likely to become more common if world leaders, who recently gathered at the U.N., abstain from addressing the paradoxical realities of African poverty.

According to Oxfam, years of neglect by rich countries have contributed to the current severe food crisis. Oxfam's investigation shows that West African countries get only a portion of the development aid that war-trodden countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan receive

"Niger, the world's second poorest country, gets $12 per person per year in aid. By contrast, each Iraqi receives on average $91 per year in aid -- over seven times as much," Oxfam reports.

In accord with Oxfam, Save the Children has also alleged that the chance for a historic breakthrough on poverty slipped through the fingers of world leaders, and moreover, the U.N. recently admitted that its summit of world leaders in New York is unlikely to meet the ambitious target of poverty reduction.

Mark Malloch Brown, chief of staff for the U.N. secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he would now settle for half of the original program.

Furthermore, some African countries' hope of increasing the G8 decision to boost aid to $50 billion by 2010 is also in the doldrums.

They are shattered after realizing that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is worried about what consequences the Japanese and German elections, together with the impact of Hurricane Katrina, will have on the progress made at the G8 meeting in July concerning the African aid and debt campaign.

However, all is not lost yet. African poverty and hunger can still be reduced. But all sides involved in the process will have to re-examine their attitudes and find out what went wrong with their original plans.

The world needs to understand Africa's concern. In the long run, there will be no humanitarian progress without at least some justice for Africa's poor.

Parts of Africa are moving one step forward, but two steps backward due to widespread hunger, poverty and violence, which are breaking the backbone of their economies. If advanced countries do nothing to reduce the economic and social distances between regions, African poverty will fester at an alarming rate.

Wealthy nations must put in resources and build the infrastructure needed to do serious developmental work in underdeveloped nations. They must keep working on the problem until the results improve the quality of life for everyone.

But let us be realistic and realize that poverty does not drop from the sky nor does it spring from the earth like an evil spirit. Poverty is a product of social disorganization, and society is, therefore, responsible for its existence.

With these realistic facts in mind, it is not wise to blame the wealthy world alone for African poverty. It is essential that the economical and socio-cultural structure of society should also be taken into consideration while explaining the reasons for poverty.

There is no second argument though. The rich nations should help the poor, but charity alone will not solve the problem. That is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

On the other hand, it is clear that there is no alternative to extensive economic growth if poverty and hunger are to be reduced. In countries like, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya, this can only be attained by pursuing a strong rural orientation in their public policies, which so far have deprived them of much needed infrastructure -- rural roads in particular.

We have to devise, as early as possible, a comprehensive scheme of poverty-hunger reduction tasks, which seek to bring about a complete and simultaneous development of nations as a whole.

Never has it been more important for humanity together to agree -- how can we build a better Africa free from poverty? A new world order will have to address this fundamental challenge before it's too late; if not, the psychological impact of poverty will be felt for more than a generation to come.