Global Issues

Poverty

• Africa includes some of the poorest countries in the world. In much of Africa south of the Sahara, harsh environmental conditions exacerbate the conditions of poverty. Dry and barren land covers large expanses of this region. As the poor try to eke out livings through farming and other subsistence practices, they exhaust the land, using up the soil nutrients needed to grow crops.
• Between 12 and 14 million African children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
• 64% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have adequate sanitation.
• Nearly one third of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are underweight.
• Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better - if not worse - than rural people, a United Nations report says.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa 72% of urban inhabitants live in slums rising to nearly 100% in some states.
• In Latin America about 31% of urban people are classified as living in slums.
• In the UK over 13 million of us live in poverty. That's one-in-five without enough to live on.
• By 2013 there will be 3.1 million children in poverty in the UK.