Sub-Saharan Africa

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Development has come to be the focal point of attention by governing entities around the world. For a long time, the notion took on a strictly economic dimension as it referred to the ability of a national economy to generate and sustain a steady annual increase in its Gross National Product (GNP) between 5 and 7 %. Development also entailed a change of the configuration of the landscape of production, shifting from a predominantly agrarian economy to an industrialized one. Empirical evidence has, however, shown that while developing nations were able to meet these levels of growth, they did little to nothing in regards to the improvement of the living standards of its people. As a result of it’s lack of comprehensiveness, the concept of …show more content…

When measuring the challenged faced by these countries, it is important to recognize that speaking on their development and the elimination of poverty entails looking beyond the economic scope. This complicates our understanding of growth and development emphasizing the fact that development does not only emcompasse economic growth & rising incomes but that it is not severable from social, political and cultural …show more content…

The argument states that the removal of subsidies from the North would allow for African farmers to see their shares in the market grow. However, there has rather been a growing reliance of SSA countries on the export of primary commodity goods. Indeed, there was an increase in the percentage of exports of these goods from nineteen ninety five to two thousand, which , for these countries increased from 70.48 to 78.44%. This same study shows that their share of agricultural export diminish from 17.75 to 11.32%. This aggregation of all primary commodities combined with the falling share of agricultural exports is likely due to the oil and other minerals prices exceeding that of agricultural goods. It is mainly the major petroleum exporters that had a low percentage export of agricultural products. Indeed, their share in agricultural exports went from 3.15 percent to 1.34 percent. Thus, the dependency that existed when Africa mainly relied on one trading partner arises again, this time, it is because of lack of diversity of the exported good. This specialization is however a result of terms of trades, from which the continent has been subjected to despite the

Evicted By Matthew Desmond Analysis
1076 Words | 3 Pages
Poverty is not just an issue reserved for third world countries. Instead, poverty is a multifaceted issue that even the most developed nations must battle
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Sub-Saharan Africa
1817 Words | 4 Pages
Africa is the second largest of the earth's seven continents, covering about twenty-two percent of the world's total land area. From its northern most point, to its southern most tip is the distance of nearly five thousand miles. Africa is both north and south of the equator. The Atlantic Ocean is located west of the continent, and the Indian Ocean is on the east. Width of the continent is also nearly five thousand miles. Although Africa is so large, much of it is inhabitable. Desert soils, which have little organic content, cover large areas. The Sahara Desert, in the northern part, covers more than one fourth of Africa, and the Kalahari Desert is in the southern part of the continent. These two deserts are a natural detriment to the African continent because they make it difficult to reach the inland where most of the people live. Although Africa is relatively close to Europe, travel by land over the Sahara desert is very prohibitive. Another topographical feature that also isolates the central region of Africa is the coastline.
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2310 Words | 5 Pages
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2380 Words | 5 Pages
When looking through the topic of development, two drastically different ways to assess it arise. The majority of the western world looks at development in terms of per capita GNP. This means each country is evaluated on a level playing field, comparing the production of each country in economic value. Opposite this style of evaluation is that of the alternative view, which measures a country’s development on its ability to fulfill basic material and non-material needs. Cultural ties are strong in this case as most of the population does not produce for wealth but merely survival and tradition.
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Standard of Living, in a purely material dimension is the average amount of GDP per person in a country (therefore determining access to goods and services). However the term has a much broader, non-material dimension involving issues of quality of life and are therefore much more difficult to quantify. There is no single measure of SoL, but a range of indicators, which can be used together to give a good idea of a countries’ SoL. Reasons for GDP figures alone giving an incomplete understanding of SoL in a country will be explained in this essay, along with problems faced when comparing levels of development between countries.
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As Escobar points out in The Problematization of Poverty, one of the many changes in the post-WW2 era was the "discovery" of mass poverty throughout the world. This "discovery" had massive implications for development discourse. Prior to WW2, development discourse was limited to the colonial experience. But with the end of colonial rule lurking on the horizon, western academics began to formulate theories of economic growth and "modernization." As a result, an entire genre of academic research emerged: the development discourse. The aim of development discourse was to chart out patterns of growth (which were based on the historical successes of the West) that newly independent countries could use, primarily to escape vicious cycles of poverty, famine, etc.
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2836 Words | 6 Pages
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906 Words | 2 Pages
This essay will detail will examine how development is defined and the relative inaccuracies which surround it. Good, you define terms and introduce the purpose of the essay. As mentioned above, many economists use GNP or GDP to measure. development. The. GNP may be defined as the total value, or output of goods.
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1280 Words | 3 Pages
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1663 Words | 4 Pages
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872 Words | 2 Pages
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862 Words | 2 Pages
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2237 Words | 5 Pages
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1190 Words | 3 Pages
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775 Words | 2 Pages
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Sub-Saharan Africa

Evicted By Matthew Desmond Analysis