UNDER DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Under Development in Africa

Under Development in Africa

Introduction

The term underdevelopment is controversial. Real Academia defines it as the delay of a country or region, which would not have achieved certain levels (economic, cultural). For the first term, the consensus among expert and usually unanimous, discrepancies arise when trying to define the "bound" levels.

We propose in this paper to analyze the concept of underdevelopment, its causes and characteristics, organizations that study the relationship between globalization and Third World, and also believe that poverty and hunger are, among others, consequences of growing disparities between the two worlds of development and underdevelopment (Likoti, 2007).

Discussion and Analysis

General Features of an Underdeveloped Country

Low income: As production systems are behind, productivity is reduced and therefore also the purchasing power.

Predominance of agricultural activity: In general, agriculture, exploitation of forests and livestock occupy most of the population and often generate more than 40% of GDP, while high-income countries this ratio represents 3%.

High illiteracy rates: These situations are both cause and consequence of the high level of income of the population. The appropriate education and training are prerequisites for social and economic progress.

High birth rates: Reducing mortality rates by the existence of high birth rates (whose evolution is more stable due to the resistance offered by the socio-cultural and religious), resulting in significant population growth.

Food insufficiency: The unequal distribution of food in the world explains that many millions of people to suffer malnutrition, food shortages and even die due to famine.

Life expectancy is low: The low purchasing power of the population and lack of education and cause health weaknesses in food and chronic health problems that reduce significantly the life expectancy.

Economic Characteristics

The existence of an economic dualism:

The Third World economy is an economy deeply disjointed, with huge contrasts between central cities and surrounding suburbs, including living conditions in cities and countryside, between the modern sectors traditional agriculture or between the tech industry and crafts (Likoti, 2007). This disruption is the result of an economy fragmented into compartments, sealed in which counters some dynamic centers of economic activity and modern, mostly controlled by foreign capital and most of its foreign-oriented production and some areas where a traditional economy based predominantly on agriculture and handicrafts and the production for own consumption or local market.

Dependence on trade:

Developing countries have a high dependence on foreign trade. Except in a few cases such as the Asian dragons, the export orientation in the bulk of productive activity is the result of the extreme narrowness of the market, derives from the low purchasing power of the majority of the population. Thus, most third world countries have a very high export ratios are not indicators of strength in the economy, but their low production costs, plus many third world countries are still essentially raw materials suppliers low price for industrialized countries, while having to import most products and all the technology industry.

A sharp inequality in income distribution:

The distance that exists between ...