the concept of social development

THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

By Islah Hassan

Introduction The definition of the concept of social development consider from the most complicated definitions as the social scientists or the development planners are not agreed upon one specific definition for the term social development it emerged from the background of the group adopted it , or from the back ground of the individual, there fore there is no specific definitions. But never the less the concept of social development in its normal setting means the collaboration of the public and popular efforts used to enhance the process of the socioeconomic development, with intention of the improvement of the living situation of the individuals in a specific society. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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Subject to the above mentioned definition, social development means the improvement of the living conditions of the individual with special emphasize on the vulnerable groups, such as the poor and the poorest of the poor, and women and children. It means in its simple meaning the equal distribution of wealth and income between the populations of specific society.

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The literal meaning of the verb ( to develop) mean to move toward the best through several stages.

In the dictionary the meaning is different when we use it to people or to countries , When we use it for countries it should be connected to the word underdevelopment to describe the state of the lack of development, or by adding ( ing) to the word develop to become developing, to describe the state of gradual development .


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The Evolution of the Concept Of Social Development Definition The 1492 and 1498 was the process of interdependent development. The sort of long distance relationship that was created was new in world history. The whole contemporary world problem that we call variously that of underdevelopment” modernization” or economic development” of the third world is concerned at base with a dominance/dependence relationship that is expressed in a great many ways. Most obviously it is expressed in the contrast between the rich and the poor countries, the former group enjoying average per capita incomes ten to twenty times larger than those of the latter group. But there are rich people in poor countries and rich people in poor countries, and neither wealth or poverty can be measured adequately in money terms alone.


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The theoretical justification of economic liberalism was also the foundation of economies, and most economic writing of the early period was concerned with growth . Hence it forms the basis for the modern theory of growth and development, as applied to dependent developing countries. But early growth theory was conceived in the very different context of a unique industrial revolution in an otherwise unindustrialized world.


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Malthus introduced the question of population into economic growth theory more thoroughly than any of his contemporaries. In common with them, hen assumed that population would grow as the economy expanded, but he dissented with the view of some writers in the previous century who saw no limits to this process. In the last three years of the World War 11 the Allied governments and their people became almost unanimous in adopting higher productivity, greater welfare and democratic governments as goals for the colonial territories. With the formation of the United Nations Organization in 1945 the intention of goodwill widened to include the underdeveloped world as a whole


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Growth in theory The emphasis on the central manipulation of whole national economies demanded much more adequate measures of national economic performance than were available before world war 11. The concept of the national income goes back a long way, and the first serious attempts to measure it were made even before 1914. And one of the earliest efforts of the United Nations to create a vast improvement in national statistical services .


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The first Development Decade In 1961 resolution 1710 of the General Assembly of the United Nations inaugurated a programme for the 1960s in which to attain for each country a substantial increase in the rate of growth, with each country setting its own target , taking as the objective of a minimal annual rate of growth, to equal 1 percent of the formers GNP. A few of the DCs have reached or surpassed the 1 per cent aid target throughout the decade, but the average DC low peaked at 0.95% of their GNP in 1961.


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In the LDCs as a whole there is clear evidence of an improving trend, with growth rates rather than those of the DCs taken as a group towards the end of the decade. But growth rates tell us little , notwithstanding the emphasis given to them in development literature, and in statistical presentations. -For many years according to Rostow 1960 it was believed that the development which needed by countries connected with the kind of the society, and consider of the first development theories, which define the society as high consumption society. -It is believed that development mean high national income connected by the market economy, and this society the majority of its people work to meet their basic consumption needs , and they produce goods and services for cash.


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-This mean development views from economic perspective, increase in the National income. -There is consensus among the economist that economic development should precede social development. The colonial power encourage the economic growth in order to finance the basic social services in its territories. -This understanding for the concept of development continue until the mid of 1960s when people began to ask weather the high mass consumption society is satisfy their needs for the sort of society they are gearing for ? -This concept accompanied with social and economic problems the thing which convinced the people with dangerous of the economic measure.!


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-The evidences came from the developed and the developing countries with the increase interest with social , economic and environmental problems such as the growing interest with unemployment problems . -It is very difficult to measure the relationship between economic growth and the social welfare indicators. Because of the lack of information from each country.


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The concept of social development There is widespread agreement that any kind of rural development policy or programme should consider the social as well as the economic aspects of development in rural areas. There are two main arguments in favour of this. One is that the social and economic aspects of development are so closely related that one cannot pursue one aspect without also considering the other. The other argument is that, irrespective of its relationship to economic development, 'social development' is a desirable objective in its own right..


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What is social development? There are many different ways of defining 'social development', or the 'social aspects' of development, depending on how one defines the word 'social'. For the purposes of these Guidelines, however, the term 'social development' will be used to mean positive changes in relation to any of those issues or activities defined as 'social' : · the social characteristics of the area or society; · the overall quality of life; · availability of and access to social services; and · social justice. To simplify subsequent discussion, these four will collectively be referred to as 'social conditions'. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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Measuring social development As with economic development, it is necessary to be able to measure the degree or 'level' of social development in a particular area or society at a given point in time, so that one can make comparisons between areas or societies and record changes over time. In order to do this, one must select appropriate social indicators - that is, things that can be measured in order to give a good indication of the degree or level of social development. When selecting appropriate social indicators, there are three main requirements which need to be considered.


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Social indicators Firstly, the indicators should provide an adequate reflection of the type of social development one is trying to measure. This means that they should cover all relevant aspects of social development (social characteristics, quality of life, social services, social justice) and that they should reflect what is generally agreed as being a 'positive' change in these characteristics. In some cases, this is relatively easy. For example, there are some fairly obvious and generally accepted indicators of quality of life (eg. per capita income; infant mortality; food consumption; quality of housing) and of access to social services (eg. distance to the nearest school, health facility or water supply; school attendance; population per doctor). © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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However, even in these cases there are debatable issues, especially when one gets down to the details of exactly what to measure. Should one measure food consumption in terms of the total number of calories consumed or distinguish between foods with different nutrient values? Should one simply measure the quality of life by household or try to distinguish between different household members (eg. men, women and children)? Is distance to social services an adequate measure of access if other factors (eg. availability of transport, charges for services, social customs or taboos) also affect access? And when it comes to some other aspects of social development, especially those related to social justice, it is much more difficult to find appropriate indicators. For example, how does one measure respect for human rights or the degree of participation in decision-making? © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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Availability and collection of data Secondly, it must be possible to obtain the data needed to actually measure the variables selected as indicators, either from secondary sources (ie. data already collected and available for use) or by costeffective data collection exercises. This is often a major problem. Much of the information one would like to have is not available, at least in the form in which it is required, and the costs of collecting it are prohibitive. For example, most of the indicators of quality of life require detailed household surveys, which are expensive and time-consuming to undertake. The problems are particularly great at district level, especially if one requires information for a particular project or programme, rather than merely to give a general impression of the level of social development. Any secondary data available is likely to have been collected for national planning purposes, and thus to be of limited value for this particular project or programme, and one seldom has the resources necessary to carry out a comprehensive data collection exercise of one's own. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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Data to enable comparisons Thirdly, the data must be available in a form which enables comparisons to be made between different areas or societies and over time. This means that the data must be expressed in a comparative or 'scalable' form. This is easy to do when the data is in quantitative (ie. numerical) form, but it is more difficult when, as is often the case with social data, it is qualitative in nature. In the latter case, one can either use some sort of qualitative scale (eg. 'high', 'medium', 'low'; 'very good', 'good', 'fair', 'poor', 'very poor') or give brief written descriptions which indicate the main points of similarity and/or difference


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It also means that the data must be collected at regular intervals, so that comparisons can be made over time, and that it must be disaggregated (or broken down) on the basis of the areas or groups that one wishes to compare. This is often a problem at district level, if one is relying on data collected for national planning purposes. For example, most countries undertake sample household surveys at regular intervals, but the samples are generally too small to provide meaningful information about variations within a district and, because of the time taken to process large quantities of data, the information is often not available until long after it was collected, by which time it may well be out-of-date.


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Choice of few 'key' indicators Because of the problems of obtaining accurate, comprehensive data, one often has to rely on a few 'key' indicators of social development, for which information is readily available and which are correlated with other factors which it is not possible to measure. For example, per capita income, infant mortality, life expectancy at birth and adult literacy are generally recognised as useful 'key' indicators of the general quality of life. Sometimes a number of key indicators are combined to form a 'composite' index. is the 'index of human suffering'


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Towards A new Concept of Development One of significant features of the new concept of development is its biased for Human Development. -It is what known by Mexico Declaration 1974. -This declaration emphasize the importance of human development. -The emphasis of the availability of the human basic needs such as , food, housing, clothes, and education. -Any growth in development should focus on the basic needs other wise it consider out of the development agenda. -By this declaration development focused on the human wellbeing being ( Man Centered Development).


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The Human Development Report of 1996 defined development indicators by the extend of the progress achieved by any country in the following areas:-Income indices of poverty have the advantage of enabling fairly ready comparison of the incidence of poverty over time or between places. However, they overlook important aspects of human wellbeing such as health, literacy, employment, and access to basic services such as housing, clinics, or schools. Over recent years , indices have been developed that take such components of welfare into account.UNDP, for example, utilizes a composite indicators consisting three variables considered as the essential elements of human life- longevity, knowledge, and decent living standards. These are measured by life expectancy at birth, adult literacy, and per capita income respectively, which are combined into a single index, the Human Development Index ( UNDP 1990) . Underline causes:- Welfare indices focus on the symptoms of poverty rather than its underlying causes and flows of income rather than the distribution of assets. The characteristics of poverty- low income, social , political, and cultural factors. -


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The Human Development Report of 2002 identified social development indicators included the Empowerment of women and the poor in general. -The Human development indicators ascertain the fact that the economic development alone dose not consider the magic key of development. As there is no relation between the social growth and the economic growth. -This mean that the Human development indicators reflect the contradiction between human capital as such and the human resources and wealth and its impact on people. -This indicators built up with the correlation between people life expectancy, their education and knowledge and their living standards. Which needs to be develop continuously, in order to measure the extent of efforts exerted in each country for the sake of the development of its human resources. These indicators used to measure the level of development ,cross country and within country , within- country is more likely useful and significant for comparisons. -


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If data on city revenues and expenditures are available , it may be possible to derive this indicator. Many social services at city level are likely to be provided and / or funded , wholly or in part, by national, private , or independent agencies or NGOs, so that expenditure on such services by the city government will be only part of whole .The extend of that spending , and the proportion of total City spending give a crude indication of the level of socioeconomic reform policies. Social indicators at the national levels commonly include “GDP” share of Social Sector public Expenditures (World Bank 1993). Such data are not generally available at the city level, since it is difficult to measure domestic product at less than national level. An analogous city-level indicator is the proportion of the city’s budget allocated to spending on basic social services (health, public health, childcare, education, cheap housing, water supplies, etc) © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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TABLE 3.1

INDEX OF HUMAN SUFFERING: SELECTED COUNTRIES

country

Index

country

index

Denmark USA UK

1 5 16

Zimbabwe Zambia Lesotho

66 68 70

Mauritius Seychelles

40 44

Tanzania Madagascar

71 75

Botswana South Africa Comoros Swaziland

57 61 63 66

Malawi Angola Mozambique

79 86 93


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Explanatory note: The Index incorporates the following indicators: 1. Life expectancy 2. Daily calorie supply 3. Clean drinking water 4. Infant immunization 5. Secondary school enrollment 6. Gross national product per capita 7. Rate of inflation 8. Communications 9. Political freedom 10. Civil rights. Each indicator is rated on a scale of 0 to 10 and the ratings for all indicators are then added together. The total score (which can vary from 0 to 100) is the Index of Human Suffering. Note that a high score is a negative indication, in that it indicates a high degree of suffering or conversely a low quality of life.control. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved. 1–27

Social indicators at the national levels commonly include “GDP” share of Social Sector SOCIAL INDICATORS

public Expenditures (World Bank 1993). Such data are not generally available at the city level, since it is difficult to measure domestic product at less than national level. An analogous city-level indicator is the proportion of the city’s budget allocated to spending on basic social services (health, public health, childcare, education, cheap housing, water supplies, etc) © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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By the late 1980s many African countries were experiencing economic crises of one form or another. The crises were the result of many factors, of which the primary one was poor economic performance induced in part by the lack of structural transformation of the economy. Both the multilateral and bilateral donors were shifting back their faith to the market., as the neo-liberal paradigm once again gained the ascendancy and established its dominance .There was a political resurgence of the new right ,which strongly argued for free market economics and a retreat of the state from the development scene. The global debt crises and the world recession strengthened this resurgence forcing most governments to comply with the neo-bilateral economic model; the new faith in the market epitomized by the economic structural adjustment programmes had significant implications for poverty incidence and strategies to combat it. In most cases SAPS meant that countries were compelled to devalue their currencies scrap all quota restrictions on imports and slash tariffs to decrease their current account deficit, raise interest rates, tighten the money supply and purge the state from active participation in the economy, eliminate subsidies –sharing in education and health and health. This - on good and cost new laissez fairyism increased the burden of adjustment on the poor (Degefe 1994) .required. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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The reality of growing urban poverty has been compounded by the high rates of urban growth experienced in all the major centers of the developing world, coupled with the poor economic performance experienced by many countries. The 1990s, therefore, saw a growing urgency by the international community to address this growing crisis. This has been revealed through the major international conferences held in 1990s. The 1999 World Development Report was an important milestone in bringing poverty to the fore of the development agenda .It comprehensively reviewed the global incidence of poverty and highlighted some of the key trends in terms of policies at global and national levels. This has been followed by a series of important global and regional meetings and conferences deliberating in poverty including the World Social Summit 1995, Recife Declaration 1996 and Habitat Agenda 1996 .The latter two have focused on urban poverty, which has exposed the rapid urbanization that the developing world is experiencing. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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The 1990 World Development Report highlighted the uneven spread of the burden of poverty with nearly 50% of the world's poor living in South Asia and SubSaharan Africa .The latter region while accounting for a smaller proportion in absolute population terms, still has a disproportionate share globally given its population size. Writing about poverty over the last decade, and the critical importance of poverty reduction in development have been increasingly recognized by governments and international organizations. These have gained further imeetis from the commitment of governments in Copenhagen Declaration of the Social Development (1993). © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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In the history and scope of development practice perhaps no more challenge has been more formidable and recalcitrant than poverty. The world is one of great extremes in affluence and well being and it has the collective struggle of such diverse disciplines as public health, economic development and law to attempt to enhance the capabilities and opportunities of the worlds poor. Issues of poverty have recently emerged as challenge particularly to the researchers, scholars, academicians and development specialists. Due to the spread of poverty phenomenon due to the IMF-World Bank Stabilization and adjustment policies (1978-85) accompanied by the economic liberalization measure in the 1990s, poverty has substantially increased because these policies are growth-oriented regardless of their socioeconomic impact. In a seminal essay on the interdisciplinary debate in the definition and measurement of poverty, Martin Greeley explores at least two major a approach to thinking about and comparing poverty across different societies. One approach is the traditional use of absolute poverty lines to define and quantify the indigent. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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By this approach the poor are those whose income falls below particular point in the income distribution curve at which accounting for food and none food expenditures, it is impossible to buy a nutritionally adequate diet. This framework has been criticized for difficulty adequate diet and the challenges inherent to understanding such complex issues as the distribution of food within households, for which it cannot be disaggregated; it is generally regarded as a fairly standardized and objective approach to the measurement of poverty. Greeley argues that poverty lines allow for the consideration and comparison of basic human needs across varied societies, and thus serve as a critical instrument in the generation of international policy and data on the amelioration of human suffering . .


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An entirely different conception of poverty emerges from the discourse of philosophy, human development and sociology communities, which point out that poverty is much more than the lack of Monetary resources with which to attain nutritional sufficiency .These disciplines desire a broader measure of human need, which accounts for not only limited financial resources but also the environmental and social conditions in which individuals lives and the opportunities they afforded. Though Greeley points out that there is" broad agreement that income is an inadequate measure of welfare" he also points out that very different formulations exist about what welfare really entails. One of the most influential of the broad-viewed formulation of welfare is Amartya Sin’s rights based theory of distribution in which income serves only as an entitlement by which individuals purchase commodities that allow them to attain certain capabilities . © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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For Sen., individual advantage ought to be assessed in terms of individuals freedom to achieve ,rather than in terms of goods such as food alone believes that welfare models should consider human functioning such as the opportunity to escape avoidable mortality ,to achieve self-respect, and to partake in community life. For Sen,expanding capability sets would in fact be the real measure of development ,and by inference, poverty would represent a state of limited or obstructed capabilities .Sens work has been critical to the formulation of human development measure(e.g. the human development index)employed by multilateral organizations and national governments.


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Nailla Kabeer and Ranjani Murthy have argued that Sin’s notion of entitlement ought to be interpreted," beyond ownership and exchange to Include socially ascribed definitions of who is entitled to what." By this they mean that poverty ought to be viewed as the result of" multiple" and interlocking" forms of institutional exclusion" . The poor are disadvantaged not only because of alack of survival means but also because of a lack of access to the institutions-social, economic, and political –that would provide them opportunities for a better life. The formal banking institution, and access to credit, is one such exclusion. It is appropriate then that Kabeer and Murthy’s framework be utilized in a study of the role of micro credit in bridging a divide between credit to the affluent ( as provided by banks) and credit to the poor (here fore an unmet need) . © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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No matter the approach espoused in the analysis and conceptualization of poverty, Greely argues that one common element is the " recognition of primacy of material need at low levels of well-being" Though the debate over what constitutes poverty is an important one; it is irrefutable that the most indigent communities in the world lack even the basic means to ensure adequate caloric intake for all people, lack of resources at both the Community and individual level compromises families' capacities to have adequate housing, enjoy safe drinking water, and obtain sufficient food .Lack of clean drinking water promotes the spread of diarrhea and of infectious diseases such as hepatitis, schlstosomiais, and trachoma, while lack of access to sufficient results in under nutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, disability, and possibly even death. Mothers who cannot afford to eat well during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with physical and mental disabilities, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty from one generation to another.


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According to the United Nation Report of the General Assembly (2000) there has been a marked increase in the level of poverty in all of the countries in the African region, although with varying degrees of severity .Overall, the poverty level in Eastern Europe and the countries of the common - wealth of Independent States increased from 4 percent of the population in 1988 to 32percent in the mid nineties. The growth of poverty varied from country to country ,but a common factor in most countries is the appearance of relative mass poverty .In those countries that have advanced further towards a market economy. In Hungary and Poland the growth of poverty has also significantly slowed. However these countries were notable expetions.In the absence of a sustainable economic turnaround in most other countries with economic in transition, poverty has continued to expand as a result of low average wages, growing long term unemployment, and the low level of social transfers. Combined with the higher cost of living and growing income differentiation.


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Overall in Central and Eastern Europe, poverty affects about 20 to 25 percent of the population, and more than 30 per cent in the former Yogoslvia.In the countries of the common - wealth of Independent States for which data exist, poverty is substantially higher, rising in the 1990s from 29 per cent of the population in Uzbekistan to around 50 per cent in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and to 62 per cent in Azerbaijani. The Russian Federation the largest country in this group, sharp negative shifts in the living standards of the population could be observed after the financial crises of August 1998. The World Bank estimated, in its 1990 World Development Report (WDR) that in 1985 there were 180 million people, or 47 percent of the total population, in sub-Saharan Africa below the poverty line. In its WDR 1992, the Bank revised these figures upward to 184 million, and 47.6 percent, respectively. The same Report estimated that both the number and proportion of the poor below the poverty line increased to 216 million and 48.8 percent, respectively, in 1993. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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UNDP Human Development Report (1994) gives a higher estimate of 54 percent for the proportion of people living in absolute poverty in sub Saharan Africa in 1980- 1990. The data of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) on rural poverty alone is even more grim .It estimates that 204 million out of 337 million ,or 60 percent of the rural population lived in ( 1988) below the poverty line .Africa rural population constituted 73 percent of the total population in that year. Disturbing as these figures are, the debilitating state of poverty in Africa can be properly perceived only when other manifestations of poverty –such as the pervasive hunger and famine, the rapidly rising number of refugees, displaced persons and destitute, inadequate levels of access to health education and education services, high mortality rates, and high incidence of social and economic marginlization and exclusion are adequately taken into account. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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In spite of the efforts to improve social conditions over the years, these Symptoms have remained alarmingly inadequate and have shown further deterioration on many fronts. The average life expectancy of 52 years is thirteen years lower than the world average and is less by eleven years than the average for developing countries as a whole .The percentages of the population having access to health services, safe water and sanitation are 59, 45, and 31 respectively, and the average calorie supply per capita is only 92 percent of requirements. Access to education and training at all levels in African continues is found to be limited. Only one out of every three women, and two out of every three men, are literate, making the adult literacy rate of 51 percent the lowest in all regions and lower of all the developing countries. Further- more gross enrolment in schools has fallen from 39 percent in 1980 to 35 per cent in 1990 and the average annual rate of growth of enrolment has plummeted from 8 percent during 1980-1990.Critical as the general situation is , it is even worse for the children and women . © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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The majority rates for infants (under 12 month) and children (under 5 years) are at 101 and 160 respectively, the heights of all the regions,. The percentage of children who are underweight, wasted, and stunted are 13, 13, and 44 respectively,. Furthermore famine and hunger has become endemic in many parts of Africa. Drought, armed conflicts and civil strife have combined to swell the number of refugees and displaced to20 million .The Tragedy of Rwanda alone has inflated that figure by 4 million in 1994. Some appreciable efforts have recently been made to develop poverty indices to measure the nature of poverty beyond the conventional headcount indicator. IFADS Food Security Index (FSI) Integrated Poverty Index (IPI) Basic needs Index (BNI) and Relative Welfare Index (RWI)are useful composite indicators in further illustrating the many facts ,extent, and depth of poverty in Africa. © 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.

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Africa is highly food insecure continent. Thirty countries out of a group of 49 African countries constituting 79.6 percent, rank as severely or moderately food insecure in accordance with IFAD. FSI,of a total of 37 countries worldwide that classified by IFAD as low food security countries, 21 are in sub-Saharan Africa. The extent of this insecurity is further revealed through the disaggregation of the components of FSI.Between the periods 1965-1967 and 1986-1988, the food staples self-sufficiency ratio in sub-Saharan Africa fell from 98 percent to 93 per cent, while the number of food deficit countries increased sharply from 28 to 41 for the same period. Particularly serious is the fact that a large and growing number of countries have been unable to satisfy even the most rudimentary nutritional needs of their populations .33 of Africa’s 42 sub-Saharan countries have per capita energy supplies below the minimum requirements.


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In terms of relative poverty (as measured by the IPI) 80 per cent of Sub-Saharan African countries (36 in number) have severe poverty while another six countries or 13.3 per cent have moderate poverty (0.40>IPI