Video: A Fight Against Poverty in Africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Um2WzmxHzw

Special Thank You(s)!

We would like to thank the following for there support:
Dennis Rawls
Charles Wesson

Your donations are a big factor in this campaign!

Where's Your Focus?

Get The Facts!

The rate of child deaths in Africa is 24 times the rate of child deaths in industrialized countries. Sub-Saharan Africa also now accounts for 51 percent of child deaths worldwide.

Investment in Africa expected to fall in ‘09

Tough times are ahead for the world’s poorest countries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released their 2009 World Investment Report last week demonstrating that foreign direct investment (FDI) around the world has been significantly affected by the global economic crisis. Global investment is essential for economic recovery and sustained growth, meaning the lack of foreign direct investment could indicate a slower and weaker economic turnaround and more obstacles for developing countries.

The report found that in the short run, global foreign direct investment is expected to be low. After peaking at $1.98 trillion in 2007, global FDI inflows having been falling since and preliminary data for the first quarter of 2009 shows that inflows fell by 44 percent compared to the same period last year. By the end of 2009, global inflows are expected to fall to below $1.2 billion. Medium-term prospects are slightly more optimistic and gradual recovery is predicted in 2010. However, growth will only significantly accelerate in 2011.

In sub-Saharan Africa, despite an increase in FDI inflows from $44.38 billion in 2007 to about $63.65 billion in 2008, initial data indicates that FDI inflows to every sub-Saharan region except Southern Africa will decrease in 2009, a significant change after five years of consistent growth.

The Opportunity

Last week we focused on the Challenged, This week the focus is the Opportunity:

Millions of lives could be saved if known technologies were available to mothers and children in the world's poorest countries. If women had access to basic maternal health services, 80% of maternal deaths could be prevented. Many of the solutions are extremely affordable, especially for children. More than a quarter of a million children could be saved each year at the cost of $1.25 for a Vitamin A supplement.

Investing in the health of mothers and children could have a lasting impact in the world's poorest countries. Children who lose their mothers are five times more likely to die in infancy than those who do not. Healthy children, meanwhile, are more likely to attend school and learn better in their classes, which will help them grow up to be productive as adults.

Its Has 2 Start Somewhere...

Effects of poverty

The Caption above represents high index values, indicated by lighter colors, show the relative poverty of African countries as ranked by the UNDP's 2004 list of countries by quality of life.

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.

Poverty and Development in Africa

Africa, a continent endowed with immense natural and human resources as well as great cultural, ecological and economic diversity, remains underdeveloped. Most African nations suffer from military dictatorships, corruption, civil unrest and war, underdevelopment and deep poverty. The majority of the countries classified by the UN as least developed are in Africa. Numerous development strategies have failed to yield the expected results. Although some believe that the continent is doomed to perpetual poverty and economic slavery, Africa has immense potential.