Poverty in Africa and elsewhere
Poor people are poor because markets fail them and governments fail them. That markets fail them is well-known. Failures in capital markets mean that young people cannot get loans to finance their education; imperfect or nonexistent insurance markets mean that poor people will not get decent health care if left to unfettered markets; economies of scale as well as the simple fact that basic services such as water are necessities mean that markets will not ensure that poor people will get the services they need to survive. As Roy Radner, a former professor of mine once put it, “When you allocate resources by market prices, you discriminate against poor people.”
To overcome these failures—that is, to protect the poor—governments step in. They finance and provide primary education and basic health care; they subsidize water and electricity so poor people can afford these services. Unfortunately, these well-intentioned government interventions lead to failures of their own. In Ugandan public schools, teachers are absent 27 percent of the time; health workers in primary health centers are absent 37 percent of the time. Only one percent of the money allocated to non-salary spending in Chad reached the health clinics. These “government failures” are sometimes as pernicious as the market failures they were intended to correct. They are also difficult to overcome because various interest groups who benefit from the status quo may resist reform.
One way to overcome them may be to create a debate around these failures, to amplify the voices of the poor, so that political leaders will listen to them. Today is Blog Action Day 2008, and the topic that bloggers worldwide are writing about is “Poverty.” Let us hope this global movement, that is based on information-sharing, debate and discussion, will eventually help overcome both market and government failures so that poor people around the world can escape poverty.
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Rural communities that have
Rural communities that have sustained themselves for millennia on their land, now they are being measured with global development indicators hence they are failing, undeveloped and in western terms, poor. The infrastructure to help them develop socially and economically in line with how they are being measured has not been put in place. The Millennium Development Goals have very aggressive targets and indicators.
With the lack of infrastructure, these goals would not be achieved. Why don't we just look at how these communities have survived and help them be better at whatever it is they are doing? It is obvious that global development is a Eurocentric concept and would not address the development challenges of the African nations.
Bonjour, une réponse à
Bonjour, une réponse à votre article ici : http://www.etreenafriquenoire.com/reagir/QuestionsDeFond/2008/PauvreteEntraideAdministrative .
The face of Poverty in Niger
Poverty in Niger is very recurrent and it has to faces,first rural and second urban.I would like to remain you that only development aid can't reduce poverty in Africa in general anr in Niger in particular because of lack of the implication of the poor in this process.So think about this....
poverty in Africa
Niger is one of the richestest country in Africa. a country with only 14 million people and all kinds of natural resources from uranium, charco,gold, petrolium, and many others. a well management of these resources is enought to provide good infrastructres, education, health, and inproving their agriculture sectors.
Africain should stop pointing fingers and stop counting on exterior aid, they should star taking advantage of a changing world.for exemple in a nation like niger, why they can't lease all the heavy equipment needed to the exploitation of their own natural resources? after all they had invested billions to provide education in the mining sectors.
The current situation in
The current situation in Chad is indeed appalling. Poor people are dying from diseases due to lack of prevention and treatment. I have left my feedback about this after reading this post here http://africacan.worldbank.org/les-d%C3%A9penses-publiques-perdues-au-tchad
. Indeed, the overall effort needed to rise a wave of public discussion of issues and to ensure that politics and government people have started to pay attention to this.
The attention of global
The attention of global organizations such as World Bank and UN focused on the African continent is quite intent. Some western political leaders often call for a return to the practice of soft-colonialism: because there is a wide diffused view that any budgetary funds granted to the authorities of African countries, will be immediately stolen. In any case poverty cannot be overcome if not to include centers of poverty in a global network of international trade. And this is very difficult when the various African regions are geographically too distant from the ports.
Thanks Thomas for your
Thanks Thomas for your comment, I hope that the problems in Africa will be solved.
Poverty Reduction in Africa
There is a need to advance the socioeconomic security of Africans through a compassionate and vigilant leadership. The African Governments must immediately implement a workable model of Social Policy Programs in Africa that will combine efforts, reduce duplicity, and adequately serve both the people and governmental needs. This is most pertinent now that world attention is on Poverty Eradication by way of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) as a part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In essence, we can mitigate poverty by categorizing them into defined sectors and I propose that we start with our disabled.
There are known methods and strategies used by developed Nation that we need to employ in managing time, resources, and recourse to the advantage of Africa. Africa has what the world needs and the world has what Africa needs. It is time for African to plan its future and request assistance from the world; not the reverse.
Well, this is a good move.
Well, this is a good move. There are 14,053 blog posts on BlogAction 2008. 13 million people should have read the posts overall, I wonder if there was any Governments reactions since October the 15th. I wish there was every year's Blogaction raising the topic of poverty for everyone reading in order to initiate social movement.
Hope that country and all
Hope that country and all Africa will develop fast to become a power continent in the near future.
i agree
I totally agree they need to pull there self together (: and become a good country for everyone
Same same in Asia
I read this article. I think about my birth place, Thailand. Thailand has some problem like this article. Poor people cannot get loans for their education.
I hope this problem that been solve some day.
Reply
Not sure if it will be a power continent in the future. Loss of direction and faith is the primary reason for many African countries failures. If the people and especially the gov't don't correct themselves, these problems will continue no matter what. Awareness AND aid is the key
Poor and do not have enough
Poor and do not have enough money to have a better education make them poorer and they can not help their country develop, a nightmare circle.
Loss of direction and faith
Loss of direction and faith is the primary reason for many African countries failures.
These countries are very
These countries are very difficult to develop because they do not have any nature resources, the only resource is people but people is not well educated, how to change? No one know now.
It is always sad to see the
It is always sad to see the environs on those poverty stricken areas especially in the African continent. Whenever I see on television photos or footage of malnourished children and babies from affected regions, it saddens me more. I hope the whole world would exert some massive efforts to come up with highly viable solutions in order to end poverty situations.
Poverty
I think the reason for poverty is the way parents don't raise their child with good financial values. The government is not to blame. The government however, is to blame for poverty of the whole country. Take US for instance, they should bring back labor jobs from companies who outsource to foreign countries.
My insight
I think governments should instill good financial values into our children. Its the only way to learn(when your young that is).
RE:
They are also difficult to overcome because various interest groups who benefit from the status quo may resist reform.
Very difficult if they stand
Very difficult if they stand alone but if all developed countries help them they will overcome very easy.
This has been a long
This has been a long standing problem whose solutions are long shot. There are just so many strong factions in the African continent.
Effects of poverty
Africa's economic malaise is self-perpetuating, as it engenders more of the disease, warfare, misgovernment, and corruption that created it in the first place. Other effects of poverty have similar consequences. The most direct consequence of low GDP is Africa's low standard of living and quality of life. Except for a wealthy elite and the more prosperous peoples of South Africa and the Maghreb, Africans have very few consumer goods. Quality of life does not correlate exactly with a nation's wealth. Angola, for instance, reaps large sums annually from its diamond mines, but after years of civil war, conditions there remain poor. Radios, televisions, and automobiles are rare luxuries. Most Africans are on the far side of the digital divide and are cut off from communications technology and the Internet. Quality of life and human development are also low. African nations dominate the lower reaches of the UN Human Development Index. Infant mortality is high, while life expectancy, literacy, and education are all low. The UN also lowers the ranking of African states because the continent sees greater inequality than any other region. The best educated often choose to leave the continent for the West or the Persian Gulf to seek a better life; in the case of some nations like South Africa, many caucasians have fled due to employment bias.
Catastrophes cause deadly periods of great shortages. The most damaging are the famines that have regularly hit the continent, especially the Horn of Africa. These have been caused by disruptions due to warfare, years of drought, and plagues of locusts.
An average African faced annual inflation of over 60% from 1990 until 2002 in those few countries that account for inflation. At the high end, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo both saw triple-digit inflation throughout the period. Most African states saw inflation of approximately 10% per year.
There are incomplete numbers for unemployment in most African nations, but it is an important problem. Major cities like Lagos and Kinshasa have large slums of the unemployed and underemployed.
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Pioneer pro-111fd
Hoodia Gordonii
I think a few smart
I think a few smart millionaires could do a lot for poverty.
Solution lies in Educating the Population
Why Africa keeps lagging behind in a time where some Asian countries in the same economic position 40 years ago have progressed while we stood still. Yes African has to heal itself and by itself alone.
The poverty in Africa is a
The poverty in Africa is a real shame, especially in today's world. At the end of the day it is the fault of the African government for being too afraid to take any real action to solve the problem.
There are many good thoughts
There are many good thoughts on poverty in Africa and how to fix it. But what good does it do to just think about rather than actually do something about it?
Why Africa keeps lagging
Why Africa keeps lagging behind in a time where some Asian countries in the same economic position 40 years ago have progressed a lot? Where have all the efforts gone?
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