Page 1 of 10
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 06
July 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 1
The Issue of Poverty Trap in Sub-Saharan Africa, Causes and
Panacea before the End of the Twenty-First Century
Dr. Austine Uchechukwu Igwe,
Department of History & International Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University,
Awka, Nigeria.
Email- drsky2002@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Since the dawn of the twentieth century,
poverty remains a recurring problem in
Africa, and became exacerbated in sub- Saharan Africa from the last quarter of
that Century. The international
community has equally shown concern to
the problem. For instance, following the
adoption of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) by the international
community in 2000, official development
assistance (ODA) to sub-Saharan African
countries continued to increase. Thus, it
was estimated that by 2010, about twenty- five billion dollars ($25 billion) worth of
official development assistance would be
allocated to Africa (UNECA, 2005). The
principal aims, being to enable the
continent solve its recurring poverty.
However, despite these assistances, the
poverty trap continues to bedevil Africa.
Against this backdrop, adopting diverse
forms of secondary data, this essay
examines the causes of poverty in Africa.
It argues that numerous political crises
inherent in the region have continued to
pauperize the African population. In the
course of analysis, the essay stresses that
the political economy approach adopted
by successive African political leaders
from the mid 1970s till date has led to
political upheavals in different sections of
sub-Saharan Africa that instituted the
poverty trap. The paper concludes by
outlining some panacea that could reduce
poverty in Africa such as favorable socio- political environment and equitable
distribution of resources to the populace.
A major way to accomplish this would be
the application of true democratic
principles that would lead to the
emergence of purposeful political leaders
who would adopt proactive socio- economic policies that could favor the
masses, thereby address the ‘poverty
trap’ in the continent before the end of
the 21st Century.
Key words- Poverty, sub-Saharan
Africa, Human factor, Question, 21st
Century
Introduction
In simple term, poverty denotes a state of
being poor, of not having enough money
to take care of basic needs such as food,
clothing and housing. However, in a more
general usage, poverty implies the
condition of having insufficient resources
or income. From a wider perspective,
poverty is a lack of basic human needs,
such as adequate and nutritious food,
clothing, housing, clean water, and health
services. In most cases poverty could
reach to the extreme level that has been
described as extreme poverty, which
Page 2 of 10
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 06
July 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 2
threatens people’s health or lives. In most
parts of Africa, extreme poverty, also
known as absolute poverty has led to
destitution of a large parentage of the
population in many countries.
As a continent, Africa includes
some of the poorest countries in the
world. However, many people are poor in
Africa not because they are indolent, but
because they lack the enabling conditions
to become economically productive. This
became well noticed as from the last
quarter of the 20th Century, particularly
from the mid-1970s. This was the period,
most of the African states turned from net
exporters of food resources to net
importers, thereby having insufficient to
feed their populations. It was also from
the 1970s that many African states began
to experience widespread poverty that
often led to diseases, epidemics,
starvation and death. Thus, this situation
worsened to the extent that in the last
three and half decades, especially as from
the late 1970s to the 1980s, millions of
people starved to death as a result of
famine in such countries as Ethiopia,
Somalia and Sudan, among many others.
The perennial poverty trap in
Africa continued into the twenty – first
Century, and its consequences
necessitated the United Nations
Organization to give special attention to
the continent during the adoption of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
at New York in 2000 (UNECA, 2005).
Despite this, sub – Saharan African states
are still held down by the poverty trap,
which has caused death of millions of its
citizens, while its economies continues to
stagnate. Although, experts have
emphasized many natural causes to the
incidences of recurring poverty in Africa;
this essay holds the view that the
principal cause of poverty in most parts
of Africa has been “man-made disasters”.
This manifests in various socio – political
crises that have affected the economies of
African states and propagated poverty to
the highest level. Nevertheless, this major
problem can be corrected if proactive
measures are implemented by African
states before the end of the 21st Century.
Against this backdrop, for purpose
of analysis, our emphasis is sub –
Saharan Africa (this excludes the core- Afro Arab states in North Africa), where
cases of poverty within the population is
quite alarming. Similarly for clarity
purpose, this essay is divided into three
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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 06
July 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 3
sections. These are: an overview of some
causes of poverty in contemporary
African; the human factor to the poverty
question in sub-Saharan Africa; and a
conclusion.
An Overview of Some Causes of
Poverty in Contemporary Africa
Poverty in Africa is multi – dimensional
in character. Joblessness and the poverty
associated with it in different parts of
Africa cause people to feel useless and
excluded from their families and
communities. Poverty is endemic in
Africa to the extent that the continent is
home to the largest number of working
poor in the world (ILO, 2007). It has also
been stressed that between 1981 and
2001, the total number of people world- wide that lived on less that one dollar
($1) a day declined from 1.4 billon to 1.1
billon people, mainly as a result of the
rapid economic growth in China and
other countries in Asia. However, the
reverse was the case in sub – Saharan
Africa, as there was ironically an increase
in the number of people who lived on less
than $1; from 164 million to 314 million
people within the same period (World
Bank, 2004).
Data from other international
agencies also show the level of poverty in
Africa. For instance, towards the tail end
of the 20th century, the UNDP’s Human
Development Report of 1997 revealed
that out of 124 countries across the globe
that had low Human development Index
(HDI), 51 countries or more than 41
percent were in Africa (UNDP, 1998).
More over, most of the African states
were at the bottom level. In like manner,
the report of UNDP’s Human Poverty
Index (HPI) of the same year was not
different. It showed that out of 77
countries globally that were at the
bottom, Africa had 36 countries,
constituting more than 47 percent of the
poor in the world. While the HDI
measures the overall achievements in a
country in three basic areas: longevity,
knowledge, and a decent standard of
living; the HPI measures the prevalence
of poverty, the extent of deprivation; and
the proportion of people in the
community who are left out of progress.
Of course, the two indices above
show that the vast majority of people in
sub-Saharan Africa are in fact left out of
progress, because abject poverty has been
prevalent. Wolde-Mariam (1999:6) aptly
describes the poverty situation in Africa
as desperate, and concludes that:
