Poor Numbers : How We Are Misled By African Development Statistics

Whilst raising money for African charities at school I developed an interest in global inequality and alternative policies that can help low-income nations escape the poverty trap. Reading ’23 Things’ by Ha-Joon Chang, I was intrigued by his view on blaming free-market policies like SAPs that exposed sub-Saharan Africa to international competition, slowing economic growth. Hence, this extended my research to the other side of the

Modern African states have various problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. Africa’s ongoing political instability and economic crisis have hindered the improvement of Africa. Thus, the lack of money, advancement in technology, and climate has hampered economic development. Despite European mistreatment and oppression African’s have endured hardships that have encouraged economy, education, and political

As many know through the news, Sub- Saharan Africa is not a wealthy nor financially stable

Kingsley Moghalu author of Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy's Last Frontier Can Prosper argues that the African economic can be transformed once there is a paradigm shift. which includes African countries creating complex products, the development of a stronger intuition, the use of propaganda and development of central banks. He believes that African countries can gain wealth and prosperity once these paradigm shifts are applied.

Economic growth, put simply, is “an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time”; development is inextricably linked with this economic growth. By utilising theories of economic growth and development we can see how the Chinese and Sub-Saharan African economies have emerged, but, more notably, we can use these to look at patterns from past and present to show their experience and the implications of this growth for the future.

Africa 's aggregate horrible local item (GDP) arrived at US $953 while the quantity of center wage nations on the mainland rose to 26, out of a sum of 54. Solid monetary development has made real advances into pay neediness. Africa 's aggregate terrible local item (GDP) arrived at US $953 while the quantity of center salary nations on the mainland rose to 26, out of a sum of 54.

     There are over 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the wealth of natural resources and the prevalence of wealth in the northern segments of Africa have led many to speculate about the equity and economic development in the sub-Sahara. Unfortunately, the progression of economic, political and social factors in this region have done little to improve the overall conditions, and have instead demonstrated a consistent bias towards the government and the social elites that has impacted the chances of successful development in the region. Since the end of World War II, changes in the infrastructure, the political forces, and in the capacity for collective action in many of

Jeremy Williams published an article on the political factors of certain countries that tend to make them less developed. His article states that governments need to do lots of things to encourage development (Williams 2009). Countries need to build and maintain infrastructure and raise and spend finance wisely on the right projects (Williams 2009). When governments are inept at managing infrastructure, development is impossible (Williams 2009). This shows that for a country to obtain a more developed, wealthy, and established country, it must have a stabilized government. Africa’s government has been quite unstable throughout the years, which has caused it’s lack of wealth (Williams 2009). Another political factor that has affected the reason why Africa is less developed is the burden of a long term conflict (Williams 2009). Somalia for example, has been going through a raging war, which seems to be the main focus of the country, leaving no room for development (Williams

In addition to Gini coefficient inequality based on APR shows all Sub-Saharan Africa countries including Ethiopia typically receive 6 percent or less of national income. This means the poorest 40 percent in most cases receive less than 15 percent. In most countries of Africa this method of economic growth is making influence for such inequalities.

Africa is a continent rich in culture, resources, and potential. But when compared to the rest of the world, Africa stands as the poorest continent despite having some of the world’s richest natural resources. Africa has some of the poorest life expectancy, highest HIV/AIDS rates, malnutrition and infant mortality rates in the world (African Development Bank Group, "Income Inequality in Africa", 2012, p. 2). It leaves one to question the reason for such disparity within the continent. The following will provide an in-depth analysis into one of the many reasons for such inequalities and poverty. I will argue that tribalism imbedded in African culture has had a significant role in the lack of economic development and income inequalities.

Paul Collier is the author of The Bottom Billion a 2007 book about Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) and why they struggle to progress despite vast amounts of foreign aid. Collier makes the argument that while much of LDCs are becoming wealthier, this isn’t the case in Africa and Central Asia who is stuck due to four development traps. Seventy percent of the bottom billion is in Africa.

My desire to see the prosperity of sub-Saharan Africa, has always propelled me to speculate how a continent abundant of natural resources, is the poorest inhabited continent in the world. The Millennium Development Goals, further stimulated my interest in international development as I began to ensue this progress during my undergraduate studies. Having made numerous visits to Ethiopia 's capital Addis Ababa, or the "African Tiger", I have witnessed deep socio-economic issues despite the increasing GDP (gross domestic product) due to the economic regeneration. Studying my Bachelors Politics degree, introduced me to inter-governmental institutions and government functions, which has supplied me with a solid background to infiltrate my study of international development. Throughout the course of my undergraduate studies, I discovered the Global Politics and Solidarity, Cosmopolitanism and Global Justice modules to be the most enlightening, heavily focusing on development issues such as poverty and climate change. For this purpose, my undergraduate research topic focused on Global Poverty and the Dependency Model. During this research, I sourced documents relating to dependency theorist, Andre Gunder Frank who argues that the developed states perpetuate the conditions of underdevelopment to promote their own development.

African nations regularly fall to the bottom of any list measuring economic activity, such as per capita income or per capita GDP, despite a wealth of natural resources. The bottom 25 spots of the United Nations (UN) quality of life index are regularly filled by African nations. In 2006, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. In many nations, the per capita income is often less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty

    Living in the dawn of the 21st century, the idea of economic development permeates third world politics.  Perhaps no single issue has raised so much hope, or so much scepticism, as the idea of development.  Historically, attempts at economic development have resulted in varying degrees of success and failure.  Nowhere has this been more apparent as in Africa.  By the 20th century, Africa began to play an increasingly important role in the European economy.  In the 1920's, Europe promoted Laissez-Faire policies in Africa, but gradually shifted towards protectionism and Neo-Mercantilism in the 1930's, and finally to disengagement in the 1950's.  The purpose of this essay is to chronicle these

This is what a researcher could say about this program to paint the big picture for readers, “Clearly, the World Bank’s structural adjustment of Ghana is a textbook example of how to ruin a country. The ruthless denial of mineral wealth, food, medical care, education and even water has made the population destitute spectators to the plunder of Ghana by foreigners.” (Ismi. July, 2004).