Sub-Saharan Africa

1684 Words4 Pages

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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827 Words | 2 Pages
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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2836 Words | 6 Pages
1.) The Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population of over 75 million people is currently the second largest country in Africa. However, despite being this large of a country it is the poorest country in Africa and in the world, experiencing extreme poverty. The Democratic Republic of Congo has the lowest gross domestic product per capita in the world, which is defined as a measure of the total output of a country that takes the GDP and divides it by the number of people in the country, in this case the Democratic Republic of Congo. GDP per capita helps determine the global success of a country and portrays the country’s overall standard of living,
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2310 Words | 5 Pages
Since the 1990s, poverty rate worldwide has been halved from 43% to 21% in 2010. More than a billion people in the developing world have been lifted out of poverty (Economist, 2013). Most of the growth was driven by China and India which have lifted 716 million people put of poverty. This 'economic miracle' has been unprecedented and represents an opportunity for developing country to achieve economic development.
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1638 Words | 4 Pages
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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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
In order for any country to survive in comparison to another developed country they must be able to grow and sustain a healthy and flourishing economy. This paper is designed to give a detailed insight of economic growth and the sectors that influence economic growth. Economic growth in a country is essential to the reduction of poverty, without such reduction; poverty would continue to increase therefore economic growth is inevitable. Through economic growth, it is also an aid in the reduction of the unemployment rate and it also helps to reduce the budget deficit of the government. Economic growth can also encourage better living standards for all it is citizens because with economic growth there are improvements in the public sectors, educational and healthcare facilities. Through economic growth social spending can also be increased without an increase of taxes.
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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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1663 Words | 4 Pages
For years, most of the more developed countries have been helping the less developed countries. Most of them believed that the only solution to the problem of poverty is to make the GDP grow. However, some other questions may arise as to who would make it grow, and should they be the few or the many. If it is the many who need to make it grow, then the GDP may be shared more equally. On the other hand, in order to make the GDP rise, we need to make decisions in production. The Production Possibility curve can show us the maximum amounts an economy can produce, but it doesn’t tell us which decision would be made. A country makes the decision on what to produce is accordance to the income distribution. The most ideal case is to have perfect income equality (Gini Coefficient equal to 0) in one society. However, studies tell us that this can never be reached. In most of the more developed countries, a Gini Coefficient (G.C.) of 0.2 to 0.35 is considered to be in relative equality. One may wonder what is the G.C. in the less developed countries? The answer is assumed to be a number in the higher rank. In fact, in most LCD’s, the G.C. is about 0.5 to 0.7 or even higher. This shows us that the problem of income inequality is very seriously in those countries. “We were taught to take care of our GNP as this will take care of poverty. Let us reverse this and take care of poverty as this will take care of po...
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2237 Words | 5 Pages
Development fundamentally is both complex and ambiguous. In recent years, Development has taken on the limited meaning of the practice of development agencies, especially in focusing on reducing poverty and the Millennium Development Goals. (Thomas, 2004: 1, 2) The definition of development is a controversial field. The Implicit value assumptions and associated policy responses are rationally linked to the nature of the definitions employed. These values are central to disputes about the definition of development – improve what, ways to improve it and the question of who decides? For much of the post-World War II period development has been defined in a long-term view with an emphasis on socio-economic structural transformation. Since the 1990s, development comes to be defined with a shorter horizon related to the policy objectives and performance indicators like the growth of income per capita and poverty reduction. The United Nations poverty reduction target for 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals, is significantly higher in the latter
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872 Words | 2 Pages
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines development as the act or process of growing or causing something to grow larger or more advanced. We live in a world that is continuously developing, in ways that we cannot even begin to try to describe. Nonetheless, The World Bank measures indicators of development. To do this, they look at three-hundred and thirty-one different indicators which cover a vast number of areas, including agriculture, aid effectiveness, climate change, economic policy, education, energy and mining, environment, the financial sector, poverty, science and technology, social development, and urban development. The World Bank’s World Development Indicators data is has been used for over fifty years as the standard by which development is measured. While this list may seem like a comprehensive, all-inclusive list, it does not consider the idea of sustainable development. While development for the sake of advancement may seem like a good option for an undeveloped country, it can be argued that development that is not sustainable is not development at all, but merely the illusion of one.
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775 Words | 2 Pages
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862 Words | 2 Pages
in relation to development. Development is explained by the Oxford Dictionary as the process of developing or developed in a specified state of growth or advancement. Underdeveloped as according to the Oxford Dictionary is ‘not fully developed or not advanced economically’ which is meant for a country or a region. We can certainly see the difference between underdeveloped and developed where the changing situation emerges from the economic point of view. To be more specific, worlds within world were created i.e. the nomenclature of First World and Third World came into picture. The First World is said to be the industrialised, capitalist countries of Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand who are developed (as explained in the definition). The Third World includes the developing countries of- Asia, Africa and Latin America who are still in the mode of developing. Normally we understand the situation of underdevelopment is because the third world was under the colonies or the colonial rule for a certain period of time and lags behind the first world in every aspects like- social, economical, political, technological advancements which are yet to be seen in the third world fully like the first world. In this paper we will talk about various theorists from - Karl Marx (capitalism and class conflict), Kay and Amin (merchant capitalism, colonialism and neo-colonialism), Vladimir Lenin (imperialism), Andre Gunder Frank (third world dependency), Lipton (urban bias) and dependency theory. Here in this paper we will try to explain and understand the relevance of the various underdevelopment theories and different attributes related to it terms of the Indian Context.
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development for whose benefit?
1190 Words | 3 Pages
Focusing on the concept of “development,” there appears to be a divide between those who see development in terms of "growth" or "modernity," and those whose idea of development is that which is measured by assessing whether or not people have access to basic needs like education, health, and livelihood, and whether or not these people live in a society which has some respectable...
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Sub-Saharan Africa

Evicted By Matthew Desmond Analysis