There are a lot of global social problems that many countries. A social problem exists when an influential group asserts that a certain social condition affecting a large number of people is a problem that may be fixed by collective action. These social conditions must affect many people. Global social problems include inadequate housing, homelessness, poverty, street children, orphans, abuse, sexual slavery, war, and child labor. Many of these problems go on in Africa. While doing research on this country, what I learned gave me a heavy heart.
Imagine living in one of the poorest nations in the world, and struggling with barely any food, or clean water. Africa is the second-largest continent and is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is divided in half by the Equator. According to National Geographic’s, Africa has eight major physical regions, the Sahara, the Sahel, the Ethiopian Highlands, the savanna, the Swahili Coast, the rainforest, the African Great Lakes, and Southern Africa.
Some of these regions cover large bands of the continent, such as the Sahara and Sahel, while others are isolated areas, such as the Ethiopian Highlands and the Great Lakes. Africa’s population is 1.216. Major ethnic groups include the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, Bapedi, Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele, all of which speak Bantu languages.The majority of Africans are of Christianity or Islam religion, it was also estimated in 2002 by the world bank that Christians form 45% of Africa’s population, with Muslims forming 40.6%.
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Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population. The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. Therefore, a Gini index of zero represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality. Seven out of the world’s 10 most unequal countries are African, with the country Gini indexes ranging from Niger .31, South Africa .63, Ethiopia 0.47, Guyana 0.68, Ivory Coast 0.73, Kenya 0.77, and Liberia 0.73.
The total fertility rate in South Africa (children born/woman) is 2. The Sahel Region has one of the highest levels of desired fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. Data shows that on average, the majority of women want to have more than five children; the desired number of children is more than eight. “In the 31 countries at the bottom of the list, 28 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, a person can hope to live on average only 46 years, or 32 years less than the average life expectancy in countries of advanced human development, with 20 years knocked off life expectancy due to HIV/AIDS,” according to a UNDP press release.
Official and other statistics show that the crime rate in Africa is high. Of nearly half-a-million homicides committed globally in 2012, 31% occurred in Africa. (learning alliances) Numbeo ranked six African countries as among the twenty nations with the highest crime rates in the world. These include South Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Libya. As reported by the South African Police Service, between 2013 and 2014, the murder rate went up by 5%, with more than 17,000 cases.
There are two major types of poverty, Extremely poverty, is absolute poverty, households cannot meet basic needs for survival. They are chronically hungry, unable access, health care, lack the amenities of safe drinking water and sanitation, can not afford education for their children, and lack shelter clothing or shoes. This kind of poverty only occurs in developing countries. Relative poverty is generally construed as a household income level below a given proportion of average national income. (world bank) The World Bank estimates that roughly 1.1 billion people were living in extreme poverty. Almost half of Africa’s population is deemed to live in extreme poverty.Seventy-five percent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Liberia and Ethiopia. The Central African Republic ranked the poorest in the world with a GDP per capita of $656 in 2016. (borgenproject)
According to Gallup World, in 2013, the 10 countries with the highest proportion of residents living in extreme poverty were all in sub-Saharan Africa. Issues like hunger, illness and thirst are both causes and effects of poverty. Approximately one in three people living in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated that 239 million people (around 30 percent of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry in 2010. This is the highest percentage of any region in the world. In addition, the U.N. Millennium Project reported that over 40 percent of all Africans are unable to regularly obtain sufficient food.
Not having access to water means that you are poor, and being poor also means that you may not be able to afford water nor food. In 2012, 501 million people of sub-Saharan Africa, lived on $1.90 a day or less, a principal factor in causing widespread hunger. (World Bank) This number compares to 233 million estimated undernourished people. (children.org) People in poor countries often die due to lack of food, while those living in wealthy countries die from “too much “ food.
Health can be referred to as the condition of the body, especially concerning illness and disease. Therefore health problems in Sub-Saharan Africa relate to physical, mental and social instability. Conditions leading to death in Africa is lack of food, unsafe sex, unsafe water, indoor smoke from solid fuels, vitamin deficiency, high blood pressure, tobacco, and high cholesterol. Hunger also plays a big part in regards to health. Without proper food and vitamins, people struggle to keep healthy thus making it difficult to work as the body can not manage to keep going without the appropriate nutrients. Access to clean and safe drinking water is also a threat to Africans, they tend to use water from the resources they have around them such as rivers, lakes, streams,and ponds, but before they can even drink the water they first have free the water from dirt and parasites before it can be used. Drinking dirty water causes diarrhea, which is one of the leading causes of death among children.(britannica)
Malaria is the one of the leading causes of death in the developing world. Malaria is widespread and kills one African child every 30 seconds. It is the leading cause of death among many countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that 3.3 billion people live in areas where malaria is high risk. The continent of Africa has been hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2010, around 68% of all people living with HIV were residents of sub-Saharan Africa.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic across Sub-Saharan Africa kills over one million people every year. Individuals who engage themselves in unprotected sex with someone who is HIV positive has a high risk of catching the disease. However some young children do not have a choice because they have been in sexual slavery. Sexual slavery is still a big deal in some countries to this day. Especially children’s sexual slavery. Younger girls would catch these diseases faster, and more often because they were young, and their immune system was not strong and developed all the way.
Child sexual slavery is such a terrible thing that many poor countries thrive and build off of. Which is sad and my heart goes out to those little girls. Lack of access to condoms and unawareness of contraception means HIV spreads quickly. Approximately 13,000 people die of AIDS each day in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many communities lack clean water and proper sanitation facilities, particularly in rural areas. This means that illnesses caused by poor hygiene, such as cholera and diarrhoea, are common in some countries.
Malnutrition continues to be a problem in the Republic of South Africa, although it is not as endemic as in other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. 15% of South African infants are born with a low birth weight. 5% of South African children are so underweight they are considered to be wasted. Women in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 230 times more likely to die during childbirth or pregnancy than women in North America. Approximately one in 16 women living in sub-Saharan African will die during childbirth or pregnancy; only one in 4,000 women in North America will.
Africa is the poorest country on Earth, and the Global social problems they struggle with for decades now is devastating. Slowly but surely this third world country will start to become better the more people educate one another about the problems other countries face. I became familiar with multiple problems that have been going on in Africa. Sometimes people take what they have for granted when we should all be thankful for the way we are able to live.
Works Cited
- www.unicef.org/indonesia/UNICEF_Africa_Sexual_Exploitation_Fact_Sheet_-_July_2010.pdf.
- Cobbing, Julian R.D., et al. “South Africa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Nov. 2017, www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa.
- “World Bank Group – International Development, Poverty, & Sustainability.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/.
- “Downsize Poverty.” The Borgen Project, borgenproject.org/
- “Sponsor A Child In Zambia, Africa | Children International | Sponsorship Program For Kids From Zambia, Africa.” Children’s International, www.children.org/africa.
- “UNICEF Home.” Home | UNICEF, www.unicef.org/
