Why africa undeveloped

Ultimately, the Programme of Action agreed upon in Turkey renewed aid commitments made at the previous conference in Brussels, Belgium, 10 years ago. Once again donors pledged to devote between 0. Civil society groups in Istanbul criticized that as too little. It is a charge that Mr. Diarra disputed. Despite the talk of aid, the emphasis in Istanbul was on trade, investment and productive capacities.

Months before the meeting, trade issues were at the centre of some of the most heated debates among negotiators during the lengthy preparatory talks. Along with other partners, African LDCs called for the adoption of a long-debated scheme that would allow all their exports to enter developed-country markets without any duties or quotas. Such preferential treatment was considered a step too far by most developed countries, however, even though LDCs' share of world trade currently stands at only 1 per cent.

The charms of the crossroads city of Istanbul did not change any minds. Instead, there was renewal of yet another decade-old commitment: tariff-free access to developed nations' markets for 97 per cent of LDCs' exports see Africa Renewal , June Africa will benefit only if all its exports are given full access to developed countries' markets, the report notes.

There is hope that a better deal could be reached at the seemingly never-ending Doha trade talks at the World Trade Organization. African LDCs' quest for more foreign investment arguably received a stronger boost at the meeting. A set of measures designed to encourage developed countries' corporations to invest in LDCs was adopted, with governments expected to encourage their companies to invest in LDCs by providing favourable fiscal incentives and special lines of credit.

Although the continent is fast becoming an attractive destination for foreign investors see Africa Renewal , April , such incentives are much needed. We think that has the foundation to help us move on the economic front," affirmed Dede Ahoefa Ekoue, Togo's minister for planning and development, in an interview with The Guardian, a British newspaper.

African LDCs accounted for almost half of that total. Yet not only did FDI's eight-year growth come to a brief halt following the global recession, it also appears that FDI is mostly oriented toward just a few sectors, such as oil and minerals.

As a result, few jobs have been created and strong growth in oil-rich countries such as Angola and Equatorial Guinea has yet to translate into meaningful change in people's lives. Such trends must change if foreign investment is to help reduce poverty, which affects over half the population in the continent's LDCs.

In order for it to do so, the Istanbul Programme of Action calls for economic diversification to reduce African LDCs' dependence on the extractive sector. One major point of agreement among delegates in Istanbul was the need to invest in productive sectors, including agriculture, industry and infrastructure. The Programme of Action refers to these as "development multipliers," as improvement in each area will benefit others. Aside from policy-makers' agreements and disputes, the LDC conference was an opportunity for hundreds of African businesspeople to conclude deals with their foreign counterparts.

Although it is too early to assess the deals African entrepreneurs sealed in Istanbul, their mere presence and the interest expressed in some of their ventures confirmed the rapidly evolving perception of the continent, at least in business circles, as an emerging market with great potential. As the rest of the world hears calls to look at the continent in a more positive way, are the continent's LDCs ready to seize the opportunity?

Sound economic policies are leading to strong improvements in various areas," asserted Mr. Masimba Tafirenyika. Technicians assemble computers at the Omatek factory in Lagos, Nigeria. Also in this issue. Cover Story. African democracy coming of age. By Kingsley Ighobor. Africa Watch: South Sudan. By Pavithra Rao. India, Africa rekindle trade ties.

Strong Institutions. The art of midwifing elections in Africa. By Zipporah Musau. Judiciary: Fighting graft needs muscles.

By Franck Kuwonu. A new era for African media. Africa after Brexit. By Amelia Tan. Pan-Africa passport to open up borders. By Tonderayi Mukeredzi. DRC economy: The giant awakens. A megaproject rises in East Africa. By Wanjohi Kabukuru. Meat imports frequently thaw in transit due to an unreliable supply of electricity and substandard technology, allowing food-borne illnesses like salmonella "to flourish.

Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh has announced that a mandate from God allows him to cure AIDS using a combination of Koranic prayers, herbs, and bananas. When a United Nations representative in Gambia questioned the "cure" — which also requires that patients stop taking anti-viral medication — Jammeh promptly "branded [her] persona non grata" and gave her 48 hours to leave the country.

However, this Der Spiegel article reports, "hardly anyone in the country dares challenge him and, unfortunately, many actually believe him.

The World Food Programme WFP warns that "erratic weather patterns" in Africa may devastate agricultural output and lead to severe food shortages. The failure of donor countries to fully fund the WFP — which currently assists 4.

The 80 percent official unemployment rate does not reflect the 78 percent of the country's workers engaged in this "unregulated, untaxed work.

The "overwhelming number of orphans" in southern Africa due to war, hunger and AIDS has led many governments and aid groups to direct resources away from traditional orphanages and toward "community-based care. Organizations such as UNICEF argue this solution is "healthier and more culturally appropriate" than moving the children into institutions. Although unlikely to uphold the full amount of Donegal's "evasive and even dishonest" claim, the UK judge hearing the case "had little choice but to say the contract was binding.

Joseph Stiglitz summarizes a discussion on "global growth with responsibility" by "a diverse group of concerned citizens from around the world," including leading economists and former government officials.

The resulting consensus calls for a reformed G8 process which would enable participation from all countries "to discuss informally the major issues facing the world," with a focus on the four immediate problems of climate change, global imbalances, global governance, and poverty, especially in Africa.

Initiative for Policy Dialogue. Arguing that the majority of debts in poor countries were accrued under "dictatorial, unaccountable and irresponsible leaders," participants at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya called for complete debt cancellation by international financial institutions.

This Inter Press Service article reports that, without unconditional debt cancellation, impoverished countries will not meet the Millennium Development Goals by As malaria decreases worker productivity, increases the rate of population growth and, possibly, the likelihood of transmitting AIDS, this "common resolve" to reduce malaria could be the key to "unlocking Africa's poverty trap.

At the Gleneagles summit, the G8 pledged to double aid to Africa by A year later, however, African nations such as Liberia, "one of the poorest places on the face of the earth," are facing diminishing international aid flows. Liberia had failed to meet the condition of "good governance" at the time of the Gleneagles summit, and therefore did not qualify for debt cancellation. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf fears the aid shortage will further destabilize the already volatile country as it struggles to recover from civil war.

The annual Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International has repeatedly ranked African countries as some of the most corrupt in the world. Hosting a conference on European aid to Africa in November , the EU aimed to prevent loss of influence on the continent after "recent Chinese overtures of trade and aid to Africa," says the Associated Press.

Against Chinese lack of concern for human rights and sound governance in dealings with African countries, the EU confirmed its conviction that tying aid to political and economic reforms "is the best way of improving the lives of Africans.

Meanwhile NGOs argued that the policy of conditionality "has never worked," and criticized the EU lack of attention to businesses' role in African corruption. Despite the general focus on Africa's failings, the region also has many success stories, argues this afrol News article. Cape Verde, Botswana and Seychelles amongst others have achieved a level of development moving them out of the category of Least Developed Countries.

These countries now feel "penalized for progress," as donors disengage while investors are still not convinced, bringing "new hardships" to governments trying to move their nations from a middle-income level "to a wealthy state of general welfare. The report finds rising sea levels could inundate 30 percent of Africa's coastal infrastructure, while percent of the continent's natural habitat could be lost by According to the article, "climate change is a present reality for many Africans," as a tight link exists between Africa's many violent conflicts — often viewed by the West as stemming from ethnic or religious differences — and the increasing climate-induced scarcity of water resources.

The summit also produced several natural resource investment deals between Chinese companies and African countries, thus further boosting recent years' enormous increase in China-African trade, which consists primarily of oil, minerals and other natural resources along with Chinese-made weapons. Meanwhile, critics say China "extracts what it needs from the continent, while ignoring environmental and anti-corruption standards.

With Chinese trade and foreign direct investment in Africa "skyrocketing" in , China has become a major player in Africa's economic development, and a widely cited "ideal development model" among African leaders. Many African leaders frustrated by Western policy conditionality have welcomed China's "strictly business" involvement in their countries. But the Chinese lack of concern for good governance and social responsibility produces a "backlash in several African countries.

The resulting exposure to the world market cotton price — significantly driven down by rich countries' subsidies — decreased the price Malian farmers received for their cotton by 20 percent in This could increase country-wide poverty by 4. Funding and visiting AIDS orphans projects in Malawi, pop icon Madonna joins the growing list of celebrities putting resources into Africa.

Christian Science Monitor reports that most aid agencies welcome the arrival of celebrities in the world of humanitarian aid, appreciating the press attention that "these A-listers" can draw to development in Africa. Other analysts, however, fear that too many donors preoccupy themselves with projects that make them "look good," rather than promote long term development.

British climate scientists from the Met Office give "one of the most dire forecasts so far" of the potential effects of global warming. Their study predicts that by year one third of the planet will be desert, "uninhabitable in terms of agricultural production," and that already drought-stricken Africa will experience the most severe effects.

While stressing that the findings contain uncertainties, the scientists deem the result "significant" and possibly even an underestimation.

According to this Independent article, the study will be "widely publicized" by the British Government at the November UN negotiations on "a successor to the Kyoto climate treaty" in Nairobi. The "Least Developed Countries Report" found that although the world's poorest countries have enjoyed the highest growth rates in two decades, human well-being in these mainly African countries has not improved. The author of this Foreign Policy In Focus piece argues that the lack of rural communities' participation in governing their natural resources largely accounts for that imbalance.

He warns that initiatives such as the UN Millennium Development Project, the US Millennium Challenge and Oxfam International's "Trade not Aid" campaign will not promote development unless they focus on creating accountable countryside democratic institutions. Ziegler highlights the obvious, but vastly ignored, connection between EU agricultural subsidies and the large flow of African migrants to Europe. While Europe destroys African agriculture by dumping subsidized food, Europeans want their borders closed to poverty-stricken Africans and respond with security measures to a problem which is in fact about "hunger refugees.

Rosset holds much higher hopes for the "Food Sovereignty" approach focusing on ending "free trade extremism," improving land access for the poor, and increasing support for family farmers and ecological farming methods. As Dutch trading company Trafigura Beheer offloaded tons of toxic waste at a landfill near the Ivorian capital of Abidjan in August , the generated fumes killed six people and forced 15, to seek treatment for nausea, vomiting and headaches.

The incident illustrates that the practice of Western companies dumping toxic waste in poor countries continues. As rich countries' consumption of electronic equipment keeps increasing, so does the amount of electronic waste shipped to poor countries for "recycling," but ending up in landfills posing significant health risks to local residents.

This powerful New York Times article highlights the experience of a nine-year-old quarry worker in Zambia. The child labor problem in sub-Saharan Africa not only deprives young workers of their childhood, but also furthers a cycle of poverty where they remain illiterate and sometimes turn to illegal or dangerous activities to survive. The author notes that child labor goes beyond a legal issue, since poverty and disease contribute to the growing incidence of child labor and many families can barely afford to eat.

Churches, for their part, must acknowledge the stigma and discrimination of their attitudes towards sex and gender. External observers, however, tend to overlook these positive trends, Hunter-Gault says. And aided by the "mountain of negative press" on Africa, they increasingly avoid directing resources to the continent. Africa needs "fresh new news' reporting" along with debt relief to free resources to finance initiatives like NEPAD - according to Hunter-Gault "one of the most effective forces of change" in Africa.

This New Times article labels poverty as the "oldest and most devastating disease in the third world. The author cites the spread of AIDS, population growth, lack of education, and geographic disadvantage as obstacles to aid and debt relief efforts. The panel will produce an annual report for the G8, UN, and Africa Partnership Forum to maintain international awareness of development progress.

Still, some organizations doubt the capacity of yet another monitoring organization to affect G8 policies. This BBC article discusses the challenges of growing populations in urban centers throughout the world and especially in Africa. Although Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the world's highest rate of urban migration, cities and governments fall short in providing basic social services.

Still, without more funding and investment in infrastructure the number of people living in urban slums could double by Under the guidance of Jeffrey Sachs, the UN Millennium Project established 78 so-called Millennium Villages demonstrating how little spending in fields like health and education can "dramatically accelerate" Africa's rural development.

Since , the initiative has shown that villages can meet many of the Millennium Development Goals if empowered by international aid and practical technologies such as fertilizers or insecticide-treated bed nets. While many of these villages seem capable to gain self-sufficiency in the near future, rich countries have to provide more aid to allow all of the poor areas to follow these examples.

Based on a report by the World Institute for Development Economics Research WIDER , this article looks at the efforts of various donor countries to provide more independent and predictable aid to Ghana. As aid programs conducted directly by rich countries firms "have had limited success" in reducing poverty, the Multi-Donor Budgetary Support MDBS approach directly funds development programs chosen by the Ghanaian government.

Although major donors such as Japan still refuse to participate, the initiative could help untie aid flows from rich countries' commercial interests. Uganda, as many other sub-Saharan African countries, has achieved increased economic growth accompanied by moderate inflation rates.

However, this "macroeconomic stability" has failed to improve the living conditions of the country's poor. At a meeting organized by the International Monetary Fund IMF , Ugandan government officials pointed out that, although the country receives more aid flows "on paper" they have little impact "on the ground. Although foreign direct investment FDI can generate growth, the region requires strong local industries and better access to foreign markets to foster development.

In addition, Mr. Homeku encourages the UN Agencies and Programmes that work in the region to support existing developing campaigns instead of "reinventing the wheel. A small group of donor countries, including the US, contracted the private insurance company AXA to cover the risk of droughts in Ethiopia.

Furthermore, opening humanitarian aid activities to corporate interests is a "risky business. This report provides a wide range of data for each LDC, on topics such as population, health, education, official development assistance and external debt.