Sub Saharan Africa

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Over the last ten years, sub-Saharan Africa has come across economic growth of coarsely five percent per year. Today, 21 African countries are considered “middle income”(Christiaensen and Devarajan). Regardless of strong growth, the impact on poverty is much less than hoped. Today, many countries in Africa add up among the world’s poorest. To tackle this poverty problem the collective prescription is economic development. Economic development refers to the continuous actions of policy makers and societies that encourage the standard of living and economic health of a precise area. It is policy involvement with aims of economic and social well being of people. “Economic development conveys a down-to-earth aspiration: to have clean water, decent schools, and health facilities; to produce larger harvests and more manufactured goods; to have access to the consumer goods which people elsewhere consider a normal part of life (Cooper).”

Africa has faced many internal and external limitations in attempting to improve poverty and promote development. During the 1940’s, development economists were wanted by African governments and aid agencies. The field gave logical nourishment to the idea that poor regions could think towards their future without defeating the global order. Before the new development economists had united their place in the institution, they were challenged by economists who used parallel scholarly tools to make a contradictory argument. That argument was that the international economy, made the rich richer and the poor poorer (Cooper). This mean that underprivileged countries were to distance themselves from global markets.

Government corruption was a big constraint that Africa faced. African regimes and nongovern...

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...ven to have performed better than others. This is due to the inequality in resources and economics. Emerging countries have pursued improvements in things like government and economic policies. African countries are poorly managed, which has huge effects on the continent. Implanting accountability would aid Africa to turn the opportunity of economic growth into more continuous decrease of poverty and inequality.

References:

CHRISTIAENSEN, LUC, and SHANTAYANAN DEVARAJAN. "Making the Most of Africa’s Growth." (n.d.): n. pag. Web. .

Cooper, Frederick. Africa since 1940: The past of the Present. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.

Radelet, Steven C. Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way. Baltimore, MD: Center for Global Development, 2010. Print.

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