Causes of hunger and poverty
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The hunger and poverty that is lived in Africa has various origins. There are natural causes, like the contaminated water and AIDS, and there are economic causes, like women as farmers being marginalized and the lack of investments that are done to help the African agriculture. The natural causes are the most important factors that cause poverty in Africa. Because the economic causes are a result from the natural factors, that’s why we have to pay special attention to the natural resources that are not being well managed in Africa, in order to end this vicious circle.
Nowadays Africa has few amounts of water, this fact affects enormously its development. Water is essential for our existence, people can’t survive with the amount of water that Africa has. How can we see this thing that is happening in Africa as normal? How can they live with such a little amount of water, while we leave our shower running?
It is unacceptable to have people in this world that doesn’t have enough water in their countries. The lack of water also affects hunger. Because people cannot use agriculture, stockbreeding or any activity that may give them sources to feed the population.
Aids is also a very big problem that affects Africa. 30% of grownups in southern Africa have HIV. Oxfam, an aid agency, says that in addition to making the earnings gained from food fall in a 60%, HIV makes families deprived from their main source of income, women. They are the ones that provide for their families and they are also almost all the food farmers in Africa. So when they suffer from aids, they can’t continue providing for their country and families, that’s why the economy falls. Women are very important in the African economy. They are the main source of production for Africa, as farmers and traders. Two-thirds of the agriculture from Africa is produced by women. That’s why if we want to have an improvement in the African agriculture, we have to focus in women.
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At last, the lack of investments and leadership are the most important facts that affect Africa. If there is no leadership, there is nobody in charge of making the decisions that could change Africa’s reality. Somebody has to make himself responsible and help Africa to improve and correct its mistakes as the ones mentioned above. Correcting its mistakes and investing more in good projects that could help Africa, little by little, it could turn into a more developed continent with much less hunger and poverty.
“The four social conditions that give rise to the persistence of hunger and poverty in Africa are the marginalization of women food farmers, poor leadership, too little investment in building people’s capacity in rural areas, and AIDS and the gender inequality that fuels the epidemic.” (Crosby, 2009) We have to attack the base of the problems that make Africa the poorest continent in the world, we can’t stay like this watching people die every day because of the inhuman conditions they live in. If we all contribute, we can make Africa’s reality change.