Poverty in Africa

Over the past few decades poverty has emerged as a global problem and a global agenda item in need of action. For that reason, the United Nations made its eradication the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The MDG’s plan is for extreme poverty to be eliminated by 2015. Poverty is more of a concern on the African continent than elsewhere. Three fourths of poor people in Western and Middle Africa – an estimated 90 million people – live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. One in five lives in a country affected by warfare. In conflict-torn countries such as Angola, Burundi, Mozambique and Uganda, the capacity of rural people to make a livelihood has been dramatically curtailed by warfare, and per capita food production has plummeted. A child dies every three seconds from AIDS and extreme poverty, often before their fifth birthday and more than one billion people do not have access to clean water. Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday. This book brings together new research on programs and policies from around the globe related to poverty in Africa and its elimination or alleviation.