|
Regional Overview - AFRICA World
Poverty & Hunger by the Numbers In the early years of the 21st Century |
|
***
ARCHIVES *** The World Bank -
Annual Report 2019 www.worldbank.org/en/about/annual-report/ [accessed 30
September 2020] WORLD BANK FISCAL
YEAR COMMITMENTS
- The World Bank approved $15.0 billion in lending to the region for 152
operations in fiscal 2019, (of which two were IBRD and IDA blended operations),
including $820 million in IBRD loans and $14.2 billion in IDA commitments.
Action Against
Desertification Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations www.fao.org/in-action/action-against-desertification/overview/en/ [accessed 18 June 2021] Action Against
Desertification is an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group
of States (ACP) to restore drylands and degraded lands in Africa, the Caribbean
and the Pacific to tackle the detrimental social, economic and environmental
impact of land degradation and desertification. ENERGY for Africa :
The Power to Industrialize and Reach Zero Poverty PD Lawton, African Agenda, 16 May 2021 africanagenda.net/energy-for-africa-the-power-to-industrialize-and-reach-zero-poverty/ [accessed 23 May 2021] Prof. Benjamin Jabez Botwe Nyarko,
Director General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), recently made
the point that nuclear energy is the best way of achieving reduction of
poverty in Africa. He said that nuclear technology will enable countries to
realize more than 9 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.He
said that nuclear, through its multifaceted applications, is key to not just
energy production but also health, food production, water sanitation and
environmental protection. Over 7 Million in East Africa on brink of starvation amid pandemic, violence and infestation Emily Wood, Christian Post Reporter, 11 April 2021 www.christianpost.com/news/millions-in-east-africa-on-brink-of-starvation-world-vision.html [accessed 12 April 2021] “The situation is
very severe in East Africa, and particularly Ethiopia. Over 2 million people
are in need of food assistance,” Dawit told The
Christian Post in a Thursday interview. “Among conflict, COVID-19, flooding,
locust infestation, all these are adding [an] additional burden to the
community.” Before the pandemic
began, several countries in East Africa faced a widespread desert locust
infestation that impacted hundreds of thousands of hectares and damaged
croplands and pastures. Later in 2020,
large-scale floods destroyed crops that were ready to harvest, which impacted
the food supply for 4 million people in the region, World Vision reports. Matters have also
been complicated by military conflicts — most recently the Tigray conflict —
and the rise of Islamic extremism. Poverty and hunger follow Africa’s fall armyworm invasion Cornell Alliance for Science, 24 March 2021 geneticliteracyproject.org/2021/03/24/poverty-and-hunger-follow-africas-fall-armyworm-invasion/ [accessed 24 March 2021] Africa’s fall armyworm
invasion has contributed to poverty and hunger among smallholder farmers, a
pioneering study shows. Severe levels of
FAW infestation reduced per capita household income by 44 percent and
increased a household’s likelihood of experiencing hunger by 17 percent,
according to the study conducted by the Centre for Agricultural and
Bioscience International (CABI) and published in Food and Energy Security. African experts
urge investments in nutrition Xinhua News Agency,
Nairobi, 26 February 2021 www.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2021-02/27/c_139770287.htm [accessed 27
February 2021] The experts and
policymakers who spoke at a virtual roundtable in Nairobi on Thursday evening
said that robust action on Africa's malnutrition crisis worsened by the
pandemic was a prerequisite in order to secure a sustainable future for
communities. "We need
adequate financing and political goodwill in order to tackle malnutrition and
childhood stunting that worsened during the pandemic amid restricted supply
of food due to lockdowns," said Gladys Mugambi,
Head of Nutrition Program in Kenya's Ministry of Health. Mugambi said that improved
nutrition will have positive economic and social outcomes in the sub-Saharan
African region where the pandemic has worsened poverty, hunger, job losses
and inequality. AID To Africa Is
Dead Aid: It Must Be Stopped Nomazulu Thata,
New Zimbabwe, 14 February 2021 www.newzimbabwe.com/aid-to-africa-is-dead-aid-it-must-be-stopped-part-one/ [accessed 14
February 2021] We need to ask
ourselves critical questions; is foreign aid good for Africa? What purpose is
it intended for? Is aid helping the people it is intended to assist in
alleviating hunger and poverty in African communities? When did foreign aid
to Africa start? Why is there still abject poverty of unimaginable levels
existing in our societies especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa? Dr. Dambisa Moyo calls foreign aid to Africa “dead aid” because it
has made the continent poorer. Why do we continue to cling on to foreign aid
that does not benefit African communities? The same question
should be asked: why donor institutions are dishing out aid to African
countries even though the aid, since its inception, has done truly little to
show for it. Who is benefitting on the other end of the donor-recipient
equation? World Bank Plans to
Invest over $5 Billion in Drylands in Africa The World Bank,
Press Release, Paris/Washington, 11 January 2021 [Long
URL] [accessed 14 January
2021] The World Bank
plans to invest over $5 billion over the next five years to help restore degraded
landscapes, improve agriculture productivity, and promote livelihoods across
11 African countries on a swathe of land stretching from Senegal to Djibouti. The more than $5
billion in financing will support agriculture, biodiversity, community development,
food security, landscape restoration, job creation, resilient infrastructure,
rural mobility, and access to renewable energy across 11 countries of the
Sahel, Lake Chad and Horn of Africa. “Restoring natural
ecosystems in the drylands of Africa benefits both people and the planet,”
said Moussa Faki Mahamat,
Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
Working with many
partners, PROGREEN, a World Bank global fund dedicated to boosting countries’
efforts to address landscape degradation, will also invest $14.5 million in
five Sahelian countries – Burkina Faso, Chad,
Niger, Mali, Mauritania. Newly released data
show refugee numbers in 2021 are the highest ever: An update Emi Suzuki, World
Bank, 20 June 2022 [accessed 24 June 2022]
All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Prof.
Martin Patt, "Regional Overview – Africa ",
http://gvnet.com/poverty/00-Regional Africa.htm, [accessed <date>] |
