NonMonetary Recycling of Poverty
NonMonetary Poverty. Survivors of the NonMonetary Ongoing Great Depression, Recycling Poverty Into the Next Generation in Africa
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| Thinking about the future of Africa |
NonMonetary poverty is a permanent reality for Africa’s progress in literacy and education, life expectancy and health, freedom from violence.
The picture on African poverty inequality is complex. Seven of the 10 most unequal countries in the world are in Africa, most of them in southern Africa. Because of population growth throughout Africa, many more people are monetary and nonmonetary poor. Many aspects of Africa’s well-being cannot be appropriately priced measured in dollars and cents. The ability to read and write, longevity and good health, security, political freedoms, social acceptance and status, and the ability to move about and connect without the fear of violence are examples of the ongoing great depression.
NonMonetary dimensions of poverty in Africa; income fails to provide a complete picture of Africa's well-being.
Education can expand people’s capabilities.
It helps people access and digest information
and knowledge. Doing so requires at a
minimum being literate. Compared with 1995, adult literacy rates are up by four percentage points and the gender gap is shrinking. More
than half the population is illiterate in
seven countries, almost all of them in West
Africa. Niger (with an adult literacy
rate of only 15 percent) and Guinea
(where the rate is just 25 percent) have the
lowest literacy levels in Africa. At the other
extreme, literacy levels exceed 90 percent in
Equatorial Guinea and South Africa, and
they exceed 70 percent in some poor and
fragile countries as well, such as Eritrea and
Zimbabwe. Despite substantial improvement in school enrollment, the quality of schooling is often low and more than two in five adults are still illiterate.
A widely used measure of the ability to live
a long and healthy life is life expectancy at
birth. It provides a comprehensive reflection
of the various factors that affect health
and mortality. Children in poor, rural households
with undernourished mothers are 20
percent more likely to be stunted. Newborns can expect to live six years longer and the prevalence of chronic malnutrition among under five-year-olds is down six percentage points to 39 percent. Even so, at 57 years, life expectancy in
the region remains well below the average
rate for the world, 70.9 years.
The ability to live free from violence affects
people’s survival, dignity, and daily life. Insecurity
significantly reduces the choices a person
can make, a specialty with voting rights and personal safety. After
years of multiple large-scale conflicts and civil wars election-related violence,
extremism, terror attacks, drug trafficking,
maritime piracy and criminality have been
growing. Wars are increasingly being fought
by armed insurgents on the periphery of factionalized
and militarily weak states, such as
the Arab and Tuareg uprisings in Mali and
Boko Haram in Nigeria. West Africa has
emerged as a key transit point in the trafficking
of narcotics between Latin America and
Europe and piracy has expanded in the Gulf
of Guinea. Africa has 54 countries, there are 15 African countries fighting wars and involved with perpetual terrorism violence. Sadly 27 percent of people on the African continent are directly affected by bloodshed, mayhem, and post-traumatic stress.
Africa has some of the world’s most glaring education inequalities. All too often, children who are born poor, female, or in rural or conflict-affected regions, face an extreme disadvantage in education. Many of the children in school are receiving an education of such poor quality that they are learning very little. More than 600 million Africans still do not have access to electricity, and the number is set to grow in the coming years since by 2050 more than one in four people on our planet will be African. "Africa’s future is in the hands of women. Equal education for girls, at all three education levels, is the critical issue” - Olusegun Obasanjo
Africa has some of the world’s most glaring education inequalities. All too often, children who are born poor, female, or in rural or conflict-affected regions, face an extreme disadvantage in education. Many of the children in school are receiving an education of such poor quality that they are learning very little. More than 600 million Africans still do not have access to electricity, and the number is set to grow in the coming years since by 2050 more than one in four people on our planet will be African. "Africa’s future is in the hands of women. Equal education for girls, at all three education levels, is the critical issue” - Olusegun Obasanjo
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| Long walk home |
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