Article #107: 3 Major challenges facing AFRICA and the REST of the WORLD
Introduction:
With the ever increasing technological advancements it is clear that the world is becoming more and more global and as such the issues which are faced by individual countries and continents cannot be looked at in isolation but, rather through a globalist perspective and lens.
I was reading an interesting article published by the United Nations. The article provides a brief overview of the challenges mainly facing Africa. This article can be found on the UN’s website by clicking: here. Make sure you read this article as it shares some important insights and observations.
Main Observations:
The 3 main observations made by the UN is relation to challenges faced by Africa and African countries are as follows:
- Climate change
- Food security (Hunger and malnutrition) and
- The outbreak of viruses
Climate Change:
The basic definition of climate change as indicated by the UN is “Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions”. With that definition in mind, the other contributing factor to climate change which has resulted in a much more significant change in climate since the 1800s is human intervention through the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
This is a catch twenty two as humans we need coal, oil and gas for daily activities such as transport, electricity and to power our plants in order to manufacture essential goods.
However there is evidence to support the claim that climate change has led to warming in Africa and has significantly increased over the past 50 to 100 years. The effects of this warming impacts a number of areas such as; weather patterns and less or no crop yields (due to damage of crops as a results of floods or inability to grow crops due to droughts).
Food security (Hunger and malnutrition):
As mentioned above the effects of climate change impact crop yields. The population of Africa based on Wikipedia is 1,4 billion (2021). This high number in population means that feeding African citizens should be a high priority for African governments.
With that being said persistent increases in climate warming may lead to a situation where in the future the continent of Africa may not be able to sustainably feed itself. This is particularly worrying because Africa’s population is the youngest when compared to the other continents.
The median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4, according to Wikipedia. As a result, there’s the potential of young people being severely impacted by the persistent increases in climate warming.
Outbreak of viruses:
The last observation that the article makes which is very interesting, due to recent events (Covid-19 pandemic) is the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea and how quickly it spread to other countries.
Again, it is clear that the world is becoming more and more global and as such events such as the Covid-19 pandemic are a great case study and point of reference as to how a virus can spread from one part of the world to other parts of the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) makes an interesting observation that as of 28 June 2023, there have been 767,518,723 confirmed cases. Of the 767,518,723 confirmed cases and only 9,540,096 were contributed by Africa. This is 1,24%. Refer to Covid-19 Dashboard.
Although this percentage is small compared to other regions the main conclusion that I take is that the other regions have better testing and as a result the confirmed cases in those regions are much higher.
It is clear that Africa needs to make greater technological advancements in the health sector, as these technologies can be used to fight viruses and diseases faced by African citizens and the world.
Conclusions:
The African continent does not live in isolation and as such issues are not unique to our wonderful continent. As citizens of the great continent of Africa, we all have a part to play in the advancement of this wonderful continent.
The challenges which have been outlined by the UN need to be tackled through a systematic approach. We need to use other continents as case studies and learn from what worked and what did not work. The following is suggested:
- We need to slow down the rapid pace of climate warming by relying on more green energy (solar energy and wind energy).
- This in turn will reduce rapid changes in weather patterns and as a result may lead to greater crop yields and increased food security for the continent.
- Greater advancements in health technologies.
Thank you for reading this article.
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Peace. Light. Happiness.
