News From Africa
April 2014
III. External Causes of Poverty
War
Invisible Power of Suppression
The effects of war are felt in every
region in African. These wars may
be due to internal conflicts or
external conflicts. War destroys the
infrastructure of a nation, destroys
lives, and slows human capital and
economic development. Funds
needed for development have to be
used to re-built war-tuned
countries. It diverts scare resources
from fighting poverty to
maintaining militaries.
Global decisions, policies and
practices also cause poverty in many
African nations. Rich and powerful
nations take advantage of smaller
countries for political and business
reasons. They sponsor wars and create
chaos among the natives of naturalresource rich countries while those
resources are being rack or looted.
The voices of the poor are obscured
from global debates making it harder
to escape poverty.
Even though African nations are striving toward eliminating
poverty, it is still a long fight. The existence of a strong middle
class accompanied by the right policies and leadership in
African Countries may help reduce income inequality and thus
poverty; thereby increasing economic growth
Wayne State University Economics 6415
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