Development in Africa

Causes of Underdevelopment

Social Causes

• Lack of Education:
  • Poor education due to debt, subsistence farming, and teacher shortages.
  • Results in low-paying jobs and economic stagnation.
  • Example: Niger's low literacy rate (37%) correlates with a low GDP per capita (618).
• HIV/AIDS:
  • HIV weakens the body's immune system, leading to AIDS if untreated.
  • Impacts workforce participation and economic growth.
  • ART (anti-retroviral therapy) is expensive and not universally accessible.
  • Southern Africa has high HIV prevalence, affecting life expectancy (e.g., Eswatini).
• Malaria:
  • Transmitted by mosquitos; preventable and treatable but deadly in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • High number of cases and deaths in Africa, especially among children under five.
  • Challenges for LEDCs due to poor healthcare systems.
  • Prevention: insecticide-treated nets (but coverage is insufficient).
  • WHO's Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme is rolling out vaccines for children.
• Hunger and Malnutrition:
  • High percentage of Africans suffer from hunger.
  • Caused by unpredictable weather, conflicts, economic effects of COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine, leading to soaring food prices.
  • Malnutrition leads to stunting and wasting, impacting health, societies, and economies.
  • Malnutrition costs African economies significantly.
  • Investment in nutrition programs can yield high returns.

Political Causes

• Corruption:
  • Undermines governments, erodes public trust, and hinders basic service provision.
  • Example: Somalia's high corruption ranking and lack of effective government.
  • Absence of regulatory mechanisms exacerbates corruption.
• Civil War:
  • Destroys infrastructure, disrupts economic activities, and causes displacement.
  • Hinders social and economic development.
  • Example: Civil war in Sudan leading to a humanitarian crisis and mass displacement; potential for millions of deaths.

Economic Causes

• Debt:
  • High debt burdens limit spending on public services like education and healthcare.
  • Countries spend more on debt servicing than essential services.
  • Cycle of debt hinders development.
  • Example: South Sudan spends significantly more on debt servicing than healthcare or education.
• Lack of Trade:
  • Limits economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction.
  • Africa's share of world trade is low and decreasing.
  • Lack of infrastructure and focus on raw material exports hinder trade.
  • Landlocked countries face additional challenges.
  • Increasing Africa's share of global trade could generate substantial revenue.

Consequences of Underdevelopment

Consequences on Those Immediately Affected

• Extreme Poverty:
  • High percentage of people in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty (less than 2.15 per day).
  • Lack of peace and security hinders poverty reduction.
  • Impacts access to healthcare, education, clean water, and increases vulnerability to shocks.
• Limited Access to Public Services:
  • Lack of Education: High percentage of children out of school in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Lack of Healthcare: Disproportionate disease burden and shortage of healthcare workers lead to poor outcomes.
  • Lack of Sanitation Services: Difficult to invest in better sanitation infrastructure, leading to recurring challenges like cholera and diarrhoea, and most countries not on track to achieve universal access to safely managed sanitation.
• Child Soldiers:
  • Children under 18 used for military purposes due to vulnerability and ease of control.
  • Experience violence, hazardous work, and sex-based violence.
  • Example: High number of child soldiers in the Central African Republic.

Regional Consequences

• Spread of Instability:
  • Conflicts spread to neighboring countries, causing regional instability.
  • Example: The Arab Spring leading to armed groups fleeing to Mali and spreading into central Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
• Refugees:
  • Civil wars and conflicts cause mass displacement and refugee crises.
  • Neighboring countries struggle to provide adequate support.
  • Egypt and Chad are facing challenges due to high numbers of Sudanese refugees.
• Spread of Disease:
  • Lower quality healthcare systems are often unable to track and contain outbreaks of infectious diseases due to poor surveillance systems and weak borders.
  • Example: Mpox spreading to multiple countries due to mobile populations in the eastern DRC.

Consequences on the Wider International Community (including the UK)

• Pressure to Donate Aid:
  • MEDCs face pressure to provide aid to LEDCs.
  • UK aid budget allocation and priorities (FCDO).
  • Largest area of spending on aid is for refugees in donor countries.
• Refugees:
  • People flee to MEDCs like the UK seeking asylum.
  • Examples of asylum seekers from sub-Saharan African countries.
  • Significant expenditure on supporting asylum seekers in the UK.
• Mass Migration:
  • Migrants move for work, study, or family reasons.
  • Increase in migrants coming to the UK following Brexit, many from Asia and Africa.
  • Examples of sub-Saharan countries with high numbers of tier 2 visas to the UK.
• Spread of Disease:
  • Diseases can spread internationally due to poor surveillance systems.
  • Example: Mpox outbreak spreading to countries around the world, including the UK.

Responses to Underdevelopment/ Evaluation of Responses to Underdevelopment

Bilateral Responses

• FCDO Role/Motivation:
  • The UK faces internal and external pressure to spend money on aid to support LEDCs.
  • The current Labour government says their development aim is “a world free from poverty on a liveable planet”
• FCDO – Successful Response:
  • UK aid package to support drought-hit communities in Kenya seen to be successful and expanded to other countries.
  • Programme delivered direct cash transfers and reached a substantial populations.
• FCDO – Less Successful Response:
  • UK's humanitarian aid package to east Africa in response to chronic drought, conflict, and rising food prices marked a reduction.
  • UN estimates that across east Africa almost 72 million people require humanitarian aid.

Regional Responses

• AU Role/Motivation:
  • The African Union is a regional organization for the countries of Africa with the goals of increasing cooperation and integrations across the continent to try and drive growth and economic development.
• AU Successes:
  • The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was established, which is the largest free trade area in relation to both population and geographic size.
  • Health initiatives organized by the African Union has resulted in fewer people being infected with diseases.
• AU Failures/Criticisms:
  • The African Union has been criticized for failing to condemn human rights abuses by African governments which has led to questions over how powerful the organization is to act.
  • The President of the African Union said that one of their issues is that 75% of their budget comes from external partners, which means they rely heavily on others to finance their ambitions and pledges.

International Responses: UN Agencies

• UN Role/Motivation:
  • The United Nations (UN) is an international organization of which every country in the world is a member, aiming to prevent future world wars.
  • The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created by the UN which is a set of 17 goals they want to achieve by 2030.
• WHO Aim:
  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) is a United Nations specialist agency that is concerned with international public health.
• Success:
  • One of the most significant successes for the WHO in sub-Saharan Africa has been the delivery of vaccines to reduce deaths from preventable diseases.
• Failure/criticism:
  • The WHO has had mixed results in their efforts to eradicate malaria and nearly every minute, a child under 5 dies from malaria.
• UNICEF Aim:
  • The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is a United Nations specialist agency that leads international efforts to protect children who face issues such as violence, disease, hunger, being denied education, lack of healthcare, and many other dangerous situations.
• Success:
  • UNICEF support girls at risk or affected by child marriage to stay in school, they have advocated for stronger national laws to be aligned to international standards
• Failure/criticism:
  • UNICEF have said that rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa is making it challenging to them addressing their current goals of ending child marriage.
• WFP Aim:
  • The World Food Programme (WFP) is a United Nations specialist agency that fights hunger worldwide, delivers food assistance in emergencies, and works with developing countries to improve nutrition and build resilience.
• Success:
  • The WFP does a lot of work with countries to improve their resilience to extreme weather and support their food security.
• Failure/criticism:
  • An internal report leaked to the press in December 2024 found that the UN’s efforts to respond to the severe humanitarian crisis in Sudan was being hampered by an inability to scale up its operations, missed funding opportunities, and fraud by some of their top officials.

International Responses: NGOs

• NGOs:
  • NGO stands for non-governmental organization and that they are organizations that are independent of any government.
• WaterAid:
  • Water Aid is an NGO whose aim is to provide fresh water and sanitation services to people in need around the world in order to improve access to water and hygiene, and reduce the number of people dying from preventable diseases.
  • Water Aid have a project in southeastern Burkina Faso to help communities monitor local water levels and conserve supplies to ensure they have enough all year.
  • Despite reaching a large number of people, a huge challenge remains: in Burkina Faso, half the country lives without clean water.
• Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF – Doctors Without Borders):
  • Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) (French for ‘Doctors without Borders’) are an international and independent medical humanitarian organisation who provide medical assistance to people affected by conflicts and disasters.
  • MSF work in almost all countries in Africa and one of their largest projects is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • Their work is made extremely challenging due to the scale of the humanitarian need, disease outbreaks such as Ebola, mpox, and measles, and attacks on their facilities.
• War Child:
  • War Child are a charity that help children who are caught up in war and work in numerous countries around the world which are affected by war and conflict.
  • War Child says there is a vital need to support vulnerable children, but that humanitarian aid is challenging to deliver which has disrupted their ability to meet their aims.
  • Despite these challenges, War Child reached almost 23,000 children in 2023.

Military Responses

• Operation Barkhane:
  • Operation Barkhane was the name given to the French military counter-terrorism campaign that began in 2013 and ended in August 2022 and has almost universally been interpreted as a massive disaster on the part of the French.
  • Since the French soldiers left, deaths from terrorist attacks have increased year-on-year and Mali continues to suffer at the hands of terror groups.
• MINUSMA:
  • The UN Multidimension Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, was a long running UN peacekeeping mission in Mali that responded to the terrorist insurgencies in Mali.
  • Across Africa, there are now only 4 active peacekeeping missions and in the last decade the number of peacekeepers on the continent has more than halved.

Past Paper Questions

• Remember these will either be given 4, 6, or 8 marks
• Nature and Causes of the Issue
  • International issues have many causes. Describe, in detail, two causes of an international conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world issue or conflict you have studied (4 marks)
  • There are many social causes of international conflicts and issues. Describe, in detail, two social causes of the international conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
  • There are many political causes of international conflicts and issues. Explain, in detail, two political causes of the international conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
  • There are many economic causes of international conflicts and issues. Explain, in detail, two economic causes of an international conflict or issue. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
• Consequences of the Issue
  • International issues have many consequences. Describe, in detail, two consequences of an international issue you have studied (6 marks)
  • International conflicts and issues have an impact on people directly involved. Describe, in detail, two ways an international conflict or issue that you have studied has an impact on people directly involved. In your answer you must state the world issue or conflict you have studied (4 marks)
  • There are many consequences of world issues on the international community. Describe, in detail, two consequences of the international conflict or issue on the regional and/or wider international community. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (4 marks)
  • There are many consequences of international conflicts and issues on other countries and their governments. Describe, in detail, two consequences of the international conflict or issue you have studied on other countries and their governments. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (4 marks)
  • International issues or conflicts impact on individual nations. Describe, in detail, two ways in which an international issue or conflict you have studied impacts on individual nations (4 marks)
  • Countries and their governments are often affected by conflicts and issues in other countries. Explain, in detail, two reasons why the conflict or issue you have studied has an impact on other countries and their governments. In your answer you must state the world issue or conflict you have studied (6 marks)
  • International conflicts and issues can have an impact on those directly affected. Explain, in detail, two reasons why the conflict or issue you have studied as an impact on those directly affected. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
• Attempts to Resolve the Issue
  • International organizations often try to resolve conflicts or issues without using military force. Describe, in detail, two ways in which international organizations have tried to resolve a conflict or issue without using military force (4 marks)
  • Governments try to resolve conflicts or issues using a range of approaches. Describe, in detail, two ways in which governments have responded to a world issue which you have studied (6 marks)
  • Organizations use many ways to try to resolve conflicts and issues across the world. Describe, in detail, two ways in which organizations try to resolve a conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world issue or conflict you have studied (6 marks)
  • Military attempts are often taken to resolve international conflicts and issues. Describe, in detail, two military attempts to resolve the conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (4 marks)
  • International organizations have many reasons for attempting to resolve international issues and conflicts. International Organizations include: United Nations, NATO, European Union, Charities, African Union, NGOs. Select an International Organization you have studied and explain, in detail, two reasons why it has attempted to resolve an international issue or conflict (6 marks)
  • International organizations attempt to resolve world issues or conflicts. Explain, in detail, why international organizations attempt to resolve an international conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied. You should give a maximum of three reasons in your answer (8 marks)
• Evaluation of International Organization(s) in Tackling the Issue
  • International Organizations attempt to resolve issues and conflicts. They include: the United Nations, NATO, European Union, Charities, NGOs, African Union. Select one of these International Organizations and explain, in detail, the reasons why it has succeeded or failed in resolving an international issue or conflict. In your answer you should state the world issues or conflict you have studied (6 marks)
  • The attempts of international organizations to tackle conflicts and issues are sometimes unsuccessful. Explain, in detail, two reasons why international organizations have either been successful or unsuccessful in tackling an international conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
  • Some international issues or problems are different to resolve. Explain, in detail, the difficulties faced in resolving an international issue or problem you have studied (6 marks)
  • Explain, in detail, why some international organizations are more successful than others in resolving an international conflict or issue you have studied. You should give a maximum of three reasons in your answer. In your answer you must state the world issue or conflict you have studied (8 marks)
  • International organizations have been successful in tackling international conflicts and issues. Explain, in detail, two reasons why international organizations have been successful in tackling the international conflict or issue you have studied. In your answer you must state the world conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)

Model Answers

• There are many factors which cause international conflicts and issues. Explain, in detail, the factors which caused an international conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
• People are affected by international conflicts and issues in many different ways. Describe, in detail, two ways in which people have been affected by an international conflict or issue you have studied (6 marks)
• International organizations which try to resolve international issues and problems: United Nations Organizations, NATO, World Bank, European Union, African Union, Charities and other NGOs. Describe, in detail, two ways in which international organizations try to resolve an international issue or problem you have studied (6 marks)