Think Global: Sub Saharan Africa

  Blog #4: Poverty in Ethiopia By Halie Schuster             The World Bank reports that “poverty rates are declining, and extreme poverty will soon be eradicated” (Hickel, 2014). The United Nations Millennium Campaign and governments of wealthy countries agree that western aid and the influence of free market capitalism have essentially resolved impoverishment and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. But this is simply just not true. Dr Jason Hickel writes in an article for  Aljazeera  that “poverty is not disappearing as quickly as they say – in fact, according to some measures, poverty has been getting significantly worse” ( Hickel, 2014 ). Ethiopia’s current circumstances revolving poverty mirror this same phenomenon. The World Bank reported in 2020 that “poverty decreased from 30 percent of the population in 2011 to 24 percent in 2016, the year of the most recent survey on household living standards” ( World Bank, 2020 ). They reported that the national poverty rate declined significant

By: Sam Whitty [Malawian farmers work the fields]               Being one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi is especially familiar with poverty. Malawi had a per capita Gross National Income of only 320 USD, which is one of the lowest in the world. On top of this, Malawi sits in the heart of poverty, sub-Saharan Africa, and its per capita income growth rate is barely half of the average non-resource-rich African economy ( 1 ).               But Malawi's trouble with poverty and its economy is not an outlier. It is part of a global trend. In Recent years, countries around the globe have seen a drop in poverty, India being the best example of this. In 2019, India reduced its poverty rate to below three percent. This is a bold move for a country that has the second largest population of any country and is set to overtake China in the next decade. On the other hand, Africa has seen largely stagnated in its efforts to reduce poverty. The disparity between Africa and the rest

     Poverty has always been an issue in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  Over 60% of the population lives at the poverty line, 54 out of 78 million live on $1.90 a day or less. In the readings for this week, Steven Radelet informed us that the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on $1.90 a day or less. The main result of this extreme poverty in the region comes in the form of hunger. According to the World Food Programme, a division of the UN, estimated in 2017 that 250,000 children could've starved in the region of Kasai because of the poor economic conditions. Along with the 250,000 children that were projected to die from starvation, 7.7 million people face acute hunger (Concern). Along with hunger, almost 4 million people have had to flee their homes and there's also another 600,000 refugees.      But how did the conditions get so bad? "Most the problem comes from centuries of exploitation and violent plundering by colonizers, leaders, private intere

  Global poverty is an issue that has been around for decades. It is causing hunger and malnutrition all over the world, along with limited access to education, health care, and jobs. The World Bank defines poverty as anyone living on less than $1.90 per day, and extreme poverty refers to an income even lower. People living in extreme poverty find themselves stuck in a constant struggle to fulfill their most basic needs in life and often have no access to service aids. In Prosperity Rising , Steven Radelet says that daily life in poor countries has been changing for the better and that “one billion people have escaped extreme poverty”. Although this may be true, we are still seeing millions of people struggle to survive in extreme poverty.             Despite achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger in Mali by 50 percent, it remains the 12 th poorest country in Africa. A whopping 50 percent of their population is placed below the international poverty line and li