As observed by the United Nation’s (UN) Human Development Index report of 2003, “The new century opened with an unprecedented declaration of solidarity and determination to rid the world of poverty.”
Despite the numerous global interventions, the rate of poverty and disease in Sub-Saharan Africa has seen no improvement. In fact, reports show that the situation may even be getting worse in the sub-region. All these are happening despite the millions of dollars that go to the sub-region as foreign aid from Western Countries.
World Bank Figures on Poverty
The World Bank estimates that the proportion of person’s living in extreme poverty in the developing world fell from 52 percent in 1981, to 26 percent in 2005. The Bank’s reports further indicate a significant reduction of poverty in East Asia which was the world’s poorest region in 1981.
Poverty in East Asia fell from “nearly 80 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day in 1981, to 18 percent in 2005 (about 340 million), largely owing to dramatic progress in poverty reduction in China. The goal of halving extreme poverty between 1990 and 2015 has already been achieved in East Asia,” the World Bank reveals. For the period of 1981 to 2005, it is estimated that China managed to get close to 600million of its citizens above the poverty line.
Poverty Worsens in Sub-Saharan Africa
While the stories on poverty reduction in other parts of the world have been generally positive, poverty in Africa as a whole and in Sub-Saharan Africa has been deteriorating. Statistics by the World Bank shows that between 1981 and 2005, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the $1.25 a day poverty rate has shown no sustained decline. The rate of poverty started and remained at around 50 percent. “In absolute terms, the number of poor people has nearly doubled, from 200 million in 1981 to 380 million in 2005,” the Bank’s figures revealed.
Though development efforts over the last four years in the sub-region may have yielded some positive results, the region remains the poorest in the world with absolutely no hope for the future of children in the region. The causes of the sustained poverty in the sub-region are not difficult to find. Principal among the causes are greed by political leaders, corruption by top state officials and the incessant political and tribal conflicts in many countries in the region. Nature has also not been kind to the region as floods and other natural disasters continue to worsen the plight of poor citizens.
New Poverty Reduction Efforts
Despite the gloomy situation, there are new efforts aimed at improving the poverty situation in the sub-region. Principal among the new poverty-reduction interventions is the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) project which has the goal of halving global poverty by 2015. Many citizens of the Third World in general and of Sub-Saharan African nations in particular, see the MDGs as a new global commitment that should achieve its goal of reducing extreme poverty. Millions of citizens across the world demonstrated their faith in the MDGs project when they took to the streets between October 17 and 19, 2008, to insist that the global crisis should not be used by world leaders as an excuse to frustrate the attainment of the aims of the MDGs
The International donor community has also pledged its commitment to fighting extreme poverty in the sub-region. The United State of America, through is Millennium Development Corporation, is helping a number of countries in the sub-region with substantial amounts of money for various developments projects. Under this project, Ghana is benefiting from a $547million facility to invest in sectors that will help reduce extreme poverty.
While the picture remains gloomy, Sub-Saharan African leaders have pledged their commitment to efforts aimed at seeing poverty halved by 2015.
 |
 |
 |
 |
