preview

Life Expectancy Rate In Sub-Saharan Africa

Decent Essays
Open Document

Life expectancy at birth, according to the World Bank is “the average number of years a newborn infant would be expected to live if health and living conditions at the time of its birth remained the same throughout its life. It reflects the health of a country's people and the quality of care they receive when they are sick” (World Bank). There are many factors that can affect life expectancy, geographic area, race, gender, and family medical history are just a few of them. Therefore, low levels of life expectancy within a country can be a result of any combination of these factors. Which is definitely the case in Malawi a landlocked country in sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi, according to data provided by the World Bank in 2013 has a life expectancy rate of 55.2 years. Which is the second lowest life expectancy in the immediate surrounding area. There are many things that …show more content…

The main factors behind the shortage were poor distribution, high food prices, and low purchasing power, this put white corn which is a staple of the Malawian diet out of reach for the lower class citizens (Phillips). During the entirety of the food shortage only 34% of the population received assistance either from relatives or food aids (Bryceson, Fonesca). This was a difficult time for the Malawian people as many of them were dealing with the AIDS epidemic in either themselves or a family member on top of dealing with severe starvation, and neither of the two help to promote growth in life expectancy. As a result of both the famine and AIDS outbreak, the life expectancy had dropped exponentially to 38.6 years the lowest the country had seen in the last 40 years (Matchaya). The 2002 famine was truly devastating and Malawi being the only one out of the six countries affected by food shortage to report hunger related deaths reflects that

Get Access