Poverty because of Urbanization in African - Essay Example

Poverty in Africa In the recent past, there has been an effort to create awareness against poverty across the world as part of the international development strategy. In Africa, poverty has been evidence in terms of hunger, lack of shelter, poor health care, and the failure of people to meet essential needs. Evidently, more than half the population in Africa lives far below the poverty line. The existence of poverty has continued to suppress the wellbeing of the people as more people suffer and even die out of the severe consequences of this scourge. Scholars have teamed up to establish the factors that lead to poverty and the best strategy that can be used to form a zero-poverty community in the world. This topic has generated a lot of heat in and research has yet to come up with an implementable plan to reduce poverty. Early scholars such as Jane Addams and Martin Luther King saw the severity of this problem and provided possible solutions to the problems evident in the society. While others feel that the poor are poor because they lack the incentive to work for better lives, it is clear that the poor people lack the opportunities to develop their lives. In Africa, issues of technological backwardness, hostile climate, weak economic policies, and corruption have worsened the poverty crisis in Africa. Corruption in Africa is one of the forces that have undermined economic development in the country. Many scholars have come to associate the problem of poverty with the existence of social injustice in the community. Researchers note that the society has for long waited for justice to unleash their potential to fight against poverty that has for long become part of their life. Social justice refers to the provision of every citizen with an equal opportunity to grow and develop. The society has been subject to an environment that suits others and oppresses others. While the well up in the society have suffered less severe consequences, the poor have been treated with bias and subjected to social injustice suppressing their chances to develop. In the society today, the rich are provided with the highest level of justice and hence are able to gather more wealth at the expense of the poor (Demery and Lyn 39-49). For long, the government has promised to deliver a corrupt free society that embraces community developments in the effort to curb poverty among the community. However, corruption has escalated over the years and only those who can afford bribes have the potential to grow and expand their operation for economic advantage. The poor continue to be exploited and their chance of survival has been minimized. Corrupt leaders in Africa overstay their election and use their financial abilities to control win in consequent election. The lack of social democracy has acted as a barrier to effective leader that can give way for economic development. Technological backwardness has been a big barrier to economic development in Africa and other third world countries. The value of technology within a country is a topic that has generated a lot of attention in the modern world. Lowe (15) notes that technology influences the level of industrialization within a country, which in turn determines economic development. Industrialization process is technology dependent and is crucial for a countries economic growth. Industrialization theories provide that difference in industrialization is the determinant for a country economic position. The global economic difference is an ideal example for the impact of industrialization within different countries. While industrialized countries such as US are at the top level, third world countries are still striving to enhance their economies by industrializing. Additionally, technological innovation adds value to healthcare services, agriculture and mining. Apparently, technology innovation can be measured on the level of government expenditure on research and development and acquisition of technological infrastructure. In addition, the commitment of the government to liaise with other countries to acquire technology is a good measure for its commitment to innovation. The investment that a country makes is the short-term endurance a government has to undergo while pursuing long-term growth. Africa is one of the continents where technological innovation has grown through a very slow process. In many countries, technology has hindered the process of industrialization and has limited the countries’ ability to engage in international business environment. The result of slow technological development is poor agriculture, ineffective business performance, poor education and constrained resource utilization. In poor countries of Africa, there are a number of reasons that may have surprised the technology integration process. First, technological development is expensive and requires high initial capital to acquire it. Since these countries are poor, it becomes a big challenge to support their technological infrastructure unless they acquire foreign aid. Secondly, there is low commitment of the African countries government to acquire technology and to use it for development. This is clearly indicated by their low budget allocation towards industrialization. Although Africa 2030 initiative have supported economic development through higher budget allocation, there is evidence that less countries are willing to invest in this direction (Britton 45). From this perspective, the government commitments to industrialization and economic instability have led to the increase in poverty in Africa. Failure of the government to eliminate economic disparities in the African countries has increased the level of poverty in the continent. Addams (118-132) makes note of the various experiences of the poor people in the society. One factor that Addams points out is the shortage of educational knowledge in the society. Reformists have suggested that the only way to reduce the poverty level in the society is by educating the masses as education is an opener to societal development. Education disparities between the rich and poor have led to increase in the wealth gap. Research portrays education as the opportunity that can help to pull the society out its misery. The argument of Addams points out that the poor face a lot of difficulty in acquiring an education, and this is the reason why they are yet far from arising from poverty. As a matter of fact, the poor lack the opportunity to send their children to school because they cannot shoulder the burden of school fees (Hills 122). Poor parents spend long days in the coarser work of the world and get little pay out of it. The issue of concern here is that education, the only opportunity for the poor to grow, is a something that the poor in Africa cannot afford. The 21st century has been marked by increased urbanization and consequent rural to urban migration. As at now, it is estimated that close to half the population of the world is living in urban areas and that by the year 2025, the population in urban areas in developing countries will hit about 4 billion. In African, there is a high rate of rural to urban migration as people move to towns in search for money (Sahn, Dorosh and Younger 11-23). A number of researchers admit that urbanization is a vital part of economic development as it paves way for higher employment rates. As industries open up in the urban areas, more job opportunities open and the living standards are expected to rise as more people get a consistent source of income. It is estimated that in developing areas, over 100,000 slum dwellers will have their lives improved due to urbanization. On this note, it is clear that to some extent, urbanization results to economic development within developing areas. However, it is clear that the proponents of urbanization have ignored the other side of the coin that shows that urbanization can be a major cause of poverty. As people move from the rural to urban areas, they drop their income generating activities in the rural areas, which results to the collapse of the economy in these areas. Most rural areas form the agricultural areas within a country, which is responsible for producing food to sustain the urban regions. Also, these are the income generating activities that the rural dwellers partake in to earn a daily living. Therefore, moving from these areas reduces family income, especially due to the fact that the learned educated people are more likely to move to the urban areas. As this trend results to a reduction in the agricultural output, the country becomes dependent on foreign food, which results to an increase in the poverty level. In countries where farmers use agriculture not only for subsistence but also as a source of export income, reduction in agriculture results to increase in poverty rate. The reason why most people move from the rural is due to the notion that urban areas are more economically advantaged and that there are more opportunities for development (Beckford 124). However, it is clear that this kind of development is two-edge knife and it can be both beneficial and a loss for the country. Another possible reason for the rise in poverty due to urbanization is the uncontrolled population increase in the urban areas. The movement towards rural areas results to a great increase in the population in the urban areas, which leads to economic adjustment in these urban areas. As the population increases, the demand for housing, health and other goods and services increases rapidly, making the life in the urban areas more expensive. Unfortunately, the population flowing from rural to the urban areas is too high more than the industries can absorb (Luther 12). The result of this is that the unemployment rate becomes high and those who cannot afford basic necessities end up living in the slums. This kind of adjustments results to increase in the poverty level as the number of those entering the slums becoming higher than those leaving the slums. The slums are regions of high poverty concentration, where the living standards of this population are much lower than those in the urban areas (Meyer and Sullivan 23-26). This trend shows that the rural to urban migration in African countries contributes to the problem of poverty. From this perspective, poverty within the African countries is a result of a combination of many factors. To reduce the poverty level, African countries must focus on industrialization as a priority to eliminate the high poverty levels. Industrialization will help these countries to overcome a number of barriers that have hindered the countries’ economic stability. First, industrialization will help the countries to utilize their natural resources effectively (Reardon and Vosti 1495-1506). In turn, this will prevent the massive rural to urban migration that has worsened the problem. Fighting corruption would be another important factor in the war against poverty. The end of corruption will stimulate productive leadership that effectively utilizes economic resources for the benefit of the country. Next, there is need to focus on the education disparities that have prevented the efforts to close wealth gaps in these developing countries. Besides, African countries should team up together in the war against poverty and define an economic integration policy that would assist the countries to work in harmony. In conclusion, the extent of poverty in African has become an alarming feature in the international development agenda. While many have blamed economic backwardness in Africa on bad geographical condition and existence of desert in these regions, there is evidence that internal weaknesses have contributed to the problem. Weak development policies that ignore the role of technology in economic development have worsened the situation. The increase in the levels of corruption among majority of African countries has resulted to ineffective resource utilization. Besides, many countries continue to ignore the growing wealth gaps within the society, which contributes to increase in the population of the poor people. From this perspective, African countries must define strategic measures to curb poverty by reacting to the combination of factors that have undermined their development agenda. Fighting corruption and allocating high percentages of their budget to economic development will help to improve their status in future. Promoting education and supporting the poor will be a milestone in the development plan. In addition, African countries need to form a strong foundation through which they can fight poverty as a continent. Works Cited Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes. Rockville: Wildside Press, LLC, 2010. Print. Beckford, George L. "Persistent poverty. Under development in plantation economies of the Third World." Persistent poverty. Under development in plantation economies of the Third World. 2013. Britton, Stephen G. "The political economy of tourism in the Third World." Annals of tourism research 9.3 (1982): 331-358. Demery, Lionel, and Lyn Squire. "Macroeconomic adjustment and poverty in Africa: an Emerging picture." The World Bank Research Observer 11.1 (1996): 39-59. Hills, John. A More Equal Society? New Labor, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion. Bristol: Policy Press, 2005. Print. Lowe, Pius. The management of technology: Perception and opportunities. London, Angleterre: Chapman and Hall. 2012. Print Luther, Martin. Letter from the Birmingham Jail. San Francisco: Harper, 1994. Print. Meyer, Bruce and Sullivan, James. Winning the War from the Great Society to the great Recession. 2013. The National Bureau of Economic Research. Sahn, David E., Paul A. Dorosh, and Stephen D. Younger. Structural adjustment reconsidered: Economic policy and poverty in Africa. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print. Reardon, Thomas, and Stephen A. Vosti. "Links between rural poverty and the environment in developing countries: asset categories and investment poverty." World development 23.9 (1995): 1495-1506. Read More