HOPE FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT: Africa is the world’s second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth’s total surface area and 20% of its land area. With about 1.3 billion people as of 2018, it accounts for about 16% of the world’s human population. Africa’s population is the youngest amongst all the continents. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita, in part due to geographic impediments, legacies of European colonization in Africa and the Cold War, undemocratic rule and deleterious policies.
Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context.
The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos.
It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), eight territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The largest country by land Area is Algeria, and Nigeria is the largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.
Africa encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere. However, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and other issues. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.
Although Africa has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world’s poorest and least developed continent, this is as a result of a variety of causes that may include corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide. Its total nominal GDP remains behind that of the United States, China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and France. According to the United Nations’ Human Development Report in 2003, the poorest 24 ranked nations were all African countries.
Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day. 81% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 86% for India.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty. About 85% of people live under $1.25 per day.
Africa is now at risk of being in debt once again, particularly in Sub-Saharan African countries. The last debt crisis in 2005 was resolved with help from the heavily indebted poor countries scheme (HIPC). The HIPC resulted in some positive and negative effects on the economy in Africa. About ten years after the 2005 debt crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa was resolved, Zambia fell back into debt. A small reason was due to the fall in copper prices in 2011, but the bigger reason was that a large amount of the money Zambia borrowed was wasted or pocketed by the politicians.
In a recently published analysis based on World Values Survey data, the Austrian political scientist Arno Tausch maintained that several African countries, most notably Ghana, perform quite well on scales of mass support for democracy and the market economy which can bring development in the country.
According the Australian political scientist Tausch in 2020, In the areas like non-violent and law-abiding society, Democracy movement, Climate of personal non-violence, Trust in institutions, Happiness, good health, no redistributive religious fundamentalism, accepting the market, Feminism, Involvement in politics, Optimism and engagement, No welfare mentality, acceptancy of the Calvinist work ethics, Ghana has performed very well which can accelerate the development of Country to compete with other European countries. While one should be especially hopeful about the development of future democracy and the market economy in Ghana, the article suggests pessimistic tendencies for Egypt and Algeria, and especially for Africa’s leading economy, South Africa. High Human Inequality, as measured by the UNDP’s Human Development Report’s Index of Human Inequality, further impairs the development of Human Security. Tausch also maintains that the certain recent optimism, corresponding to economic and human rights data, emerging from Africa, is reflected in the development of a civil society.
Africa being a continent with varieties of mineral resources is believed to hold 90% of the world’s cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium in this present system of things. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world’s coltan, a mineral used in the production of tantalum capacitors for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves. Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite.
African development can speed up with all the varieties of the Mineral resource available if Africa leaders maintain high level of decency in the political offices. Bad leadership has crippled the development of a continent blessed with numerous of raw materials.
