The Scourge of Poverty in The 21st Century: The Case of Africa

Abstract

About 220 million people or half the population of Sub-Saharan
Africa live in poverty, with projections indicating a figure of about 400
million by the year 2010. Poverty in Africa has been characterised by
declining per capita income, poor economic growth, low employment
and inadequate access to social service. It has been exacerbated by
the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the erosion of social security nets as countries
adjust their economies in the wake of globalisation, political instability,
ethnic conflict and genocide. Utilising Africa as a case study, this paper
argues that conventional theories of development, which have been
used to explain poverty such as the modernisation theory, have failed.
It therefore calls for the promotion of direct attacks on widespread
poverty where African governments and the people themselves play a
critical role in poverty alleviation programmes. The paper also argues
that over-reliance on outsiders, generally known as the dependency
syndrome, is escalating poverty in Africa, and proposes that Africans
should be more enterprising if poverty is to be reduced in the foreseeable
future.