Africa, Euro Zone, China



Africa, Euro Zone, China

Africa as the 21st century begins is different from what it was in the early or middle nineteenth century. That period for the continent was marked by a struggle for independence in various countries. Not only did they gain independence but its cities expanded, modern communication helped in the expansion of business, and small population of elite arose that enjoyed the wealth as those elite in richer countries. Despite all these changes, the continent could gain little in terms of reducing poverty and gross inequalities with regards to the distribution of income. Africa managed to gain independence but its leadership was incapable. As a result of which its poverty increased while diseases wreaked havoc on the rural and urban areas. Slowly but gradually these countries came under heavy debt and the policies that they had to implement on account of being coerced by multilateral donor agencies dealt an end to their economic and political self determination. Due to all these consequences endured their economy lies in a state of great uncertainty and apart from a few countries like South Africa continue to be one of the most undeveloped nations of the world.

The end of the cold war reduced the western interest in this continent and led to Africa countries outlining their own solutions to their economic problems. However these problems were addressed with variable success (Mugerwa, pp 1-2).

Africa is the second biggest continent which also has a huge amount of natural resources. Many African countries earn a lot of income from the mineral industry. Many countries have a good part of natural resources like silver, gold and other items. Mining in Africa has led to the growth of the richest economy in Africa. A main part of the African gross income is derived from mining. However this will not last for a long time as these resources will eventually continue to diminish. Despite being rich in vast natural resources, this continent is categorized as an underdeveloped one. In short, the reasons behind these all are corrupt governments, increased poverty, diseases, high rate of illiteracy, and lack of investment. All these are proving detrimental to the African economy (http://ist-africa.eu/).

Despite being rich with a large land and natural resources, Africa lacks many factors that are essential in helping its economy to improve. One of the main reasons is that most of the Africans are not educated and this reflected in the fact that most of them are unable to have meals three times in a day. Only fifty percent of the African children are enrolled in schools and out of them only a mere three percent would be graduating from school on account of issues like poverty and hunger. 33 percent of the children in Africa suffer from malnutrition. Due to the ongoing war in the continent, about half the children fall victim to being civilian casualties. All these add to the uncertainty that Africa faces and makes investors shy away from this ...