POVERTY: THE SCANDAL OF AFRICA...... RELATIVE POVERTY is a term used on the news to mean people who have less money than those living around them. ABSOLUTE POVERTY is different. Some people are much poorer. For them, a whole month income is less than the amount someone in the UK, on the legal minimum wage, earns in an hour (£5.93). Absolute poverty is also called “EXTREME POVERTY according to the World Bank. An Indian economist called Amartya Sen was given the 1998 Nobel Prize for economics for his analysis of Poverty and Famine. His work pointed out that in many cases the causes of famine were not societys overall lack of food but much more social and economic. Today, over 40% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa live in absolute poverty. Poverty is sometimes more about how a society shares money out than how much money there is overall. Some African countries are very poor, but others are wealthier (often from oil) with extreme inequalities between their citizens. Some people take an unsympathetic view of poverty and starvation in Africa. Others suggest that more political initiative is needed. In fact, the situation is very complicated. Each African country has a unique history, and today faces unique challenges. Development efforts require many different parts of society working together towards the same goals. In reality, this is hard to achieve. Despite an overall picture of economic growth for the continent, some Africans are being left behind. Two-thirds of the United Nations ‘least developed countries’ (classified as those at risk of remaining poor) are in Africa.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:56:21 +0000
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