The modern world is highly globalized. The international relations became very important and it is impossible for any country to exist without any external; in global terms every country participates in the whole planet’s life. Thus, our own future depends on decisions and tendencies all over the world, which makes us responsible for the world’s future. Historically Africa experienced all drawbacks of the global allocation of forces, so today we face the problem of eliminating the consequences of past events and making a decision about what Africa’s future is going to be.
According to the United Nations official data, the majority of African countries are included to the list of least developed countries by the main indicators like the average level of income, the key characteristics of human resources (health, education, literacy, nutrition) and level of economic development (2012). Logically, the level of development determines the level of life, so the African population suffers from the lack of basic needs, or poverty. Thus, poverty is the main problem of Africa, and it implies a range of issues to be considered.
As for me, the core reason of Africa’s poverty is the scarce natural resources. Here we mainly refer to the deficit of clean water due to the continent’s geographical situation and climate. People have to use dirty water, which influences their health dramatically: such water may be contaminated with various viruses and infections, that by-turn may potentially trigger epidemics. African population is also not provided with ample nutrition, which weakens its overall health, besides the level of medical service is very low. Altogether these factors cause low resistance to different diseases and high death rate (especially among under-five children), so Africa has low quality of human resources.
I would also like to note that the level of education in Africa is low, many people are illiterate, and so there are no sufficient specialists that could force the continent’s economy to rise. As a result, the average productivity of African economy is poor because of the quality of labour as one of the main factors of production.
To my mind, one of the main Africa’s problems is the conflicts among countries: this region is usually referred to the “hot spots”. Concentrating on military actions provokes unstability inside any country, people have no confidence in the future and no motivation. The military expenses are high, so even small local budgets are not spent for the benefit of the people. At the same time, most people have no possibility to rise against such regimes because of fear and their own weakness, physical as well as moral.
The only way to solve the problems of Africa is to engage global society. As I mentioned previously, we all participate in global processes, which means that we can influence them. The United Nations have developed a plan that is supposed to be fulfilled in the nearest future and improve the situation in Africa – it is called the Millennium Development Goal. This plan is aimed at …