What are the Major Challenges Facing Africa Today?

Question

What are the Major Challenges Facing Africa Today?

Answer 1

hunger, AIDs, political curruption, lack of education and lack of medical care.

Answer 2

By Africa, are you inquiring about the entire continent or the sub-Saharan region? With more than 900 million people  in 61 territories--there is not an easy answer to this question. But, I will try. You cannot examine this question without looking at the history of the "Dark Continent".

During the late nineteenth century Europeans began creating colonial nation states. Only two independent nations: Liberia, and Ethiopia avoided colonial rule. This form of imported government continued until after the conclusion of World War II.

The destabilising effect of European rule lingers on today. Before European influence, people lived as they had for generations with respect and cautions that were ingrained as the result of thousands of years of cultural interaction. The  practice of drawing borders around Europeanized territories often forced traditional enemies to live side by side, and seperated allies.

Since colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. A number of Africa's post-colonial political leaders were military generals who were poorly educated and ignorant on matters of governance. Great instability, however, was mainly the result of marginalization of other ethnic groups and graft under these leaders. For political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts that had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations. Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

This leads us to today's problems Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent, due largely to the effects of the slave trade, corrupt governments, failed central planning, the international trade regime and geopolitics; as well as widespread human rights violations, the negative effects of colonialism, despotism, illiteracy, superstition, tribal savagery and military conflict (ranging from war and civil war to guerrilla warfare to genocide). According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African nations.

Africa is by far the world's poorest inhabited continent. Widespread poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large majority of the people who reside in the African continent, where 36.2% of the population is living on under $1 per day.

Answer 3

Good Question..........

The challenges facing Africa are daunting.  Africa has the highest proportion of its people in extreme poverty and is not on target to meet any of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed at the United Nations in 2000.  The MDGs are:

=> Eradicate, Extreme, Poverty and Hunger Globally:

The number of people in extreme poverty is falling, but there are large variations in progress between regions. Asia is making good progress, but there is little movement elsewhere and sub-Saharan Africa is going backwards.

The world already produces enough food, but the key to eradicating hunger is to ensure that ordinary people in the developing world can get access to it and that it’s affordable. Poverty is the principal cause of hunger.

=> Achieve Universal Primary Education:

Number of girls out of school in Africa is the highest in the world (23m)

=> Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women:

Having more educated women with greater rights could make the single biggest positive difference to reducing poverty, the rate of childhood diseases and death and the spread of AIDS in developing countries.

=> Reduce Child Mortality:

Thirty years ago, one in five children in the world died before their fifth birthday. This has now been halved to less than one in ten. Better access to vaccinations and other basic health services and improved living standards have contributed to a steep decline in global deaths among infants and children over the past 30 years.

=> Improve Maternal Health:

Every year, more than half a million women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth. Almost all of them would still be alive if they had access to a skilled midwife or doctor in childbirth and effective emergency care for women who have complications.

=> Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and Other Disease:

In Africa, in 2003, some 26.6 million people were living with HIV, 3.2 million people became infected, and AIDS killed 2.3 million.

=> Ensure Environmental Sustainability:

Many of the world’s poorest people depend on natural resources for a healthy diet, clean water, shelter, energy, and medicines. What’s more, these people are often most vulnerable to disasters and hazards such as flooding, landslides and pollution brought about or exacerbated by environmental degradation.

=> Develop a Global Partnership for Development:

The targets in the global partnership for development millennium development goal include a fairer trading and financial system. Getting rid of barriers to trade could lift almost 300 million people in the developing world out of poverty.

Answer 4

poverty, disease, ignorance, corruption

Answer 5

Joining the modern, civilized world.

Answer 6

The major challenge Africa faces today is not any known disease of mality. It is the unreported religios conflict between Christians and Muslims, much like the Protestant-Catholic disputes in Ireland. This civil war is what Africa must overcome to prosper.

Answer 7

for the sake of humor, Bono

for the sake of the africans aids/malaria and other diseases. then again there is the lack of government control.....i think i will need to read up before i give u a good answer but here is wat i got lol