Previously I've posted on the effects of War in the Middle East. For this time, I'll be doing about the causes and effects of poverty in Africa.
Causes of Poverty in Africa
1) Mismanagement of Lands
There were huge areas of arable land in Africa south of the Sahara Dessert. But due to land ownership issues and the poor state of the legislation governing this, most of these lands are wasted. Imagine the potential if the lands were used in a beneficial way to sustain farming and food supplies.
2) Misappropriation of Money
Financial aids were directly provided to the African countries but they were misappropriated by the corrupt government for all the wrong reasons like purchase of weapons, nuclears and other things which leaves little for humanitarian purposes. This effort proves to have no long term benefits to help the country. There were also misappropriation of the monies into large projects that ended up becoming white elephants than their initial intention.
3) Human resources
Cheap labours are often used those in production and manufacturing industries where other countries have used machines for years in the same area. Though Africa may have rich amount of natural resources to be explored, the use of human workforce has pulled down the efficiency and effectiveness of the industries’ performance in the country.
Also, most of the natives in Africa are illiterate. Those who holds degrees or have furthered their studies are only few and some migrated out of Africa to live a better life. If the people received proper and effective education, the country would have transformed into a developed country given time.
4) Diseases
People in Africa are often plagued with diseases that are treatable in other countries. This is due to consumption of unclean water as they have no proper water treatment processes nor clean water resources. They are also inflicted with AIDS. Drought and plagues of locusts have caused famine and hunger and people have died from all these conditions with children among the highest number due to poor living conditions and malnutrition.
5) Conflicts
Internal and external conflicts in Africa has left people to struggle every single day for their survival and worried about their future. People have left their homes to become refugees in neighbouring states who are handling a huge burden in logistics for them. Those who were well educated enough have fled to other more developed countries in search of a better life.
The effects of poverty in Africa are as follows :
1) High mortality rate especially in children due to diseases and poor living conditions.
2) Unrest among the citizens due to conflicts and corruption.
3) People would forever work as cheap labours and not receiving proper education, medical and humanitarian assistance.
As the situation continues to worsen, Africa will never be able to progress further to become a successful, well developed nation.
