Sub-Saharan Africa ...

Most of us know that Africa is a developing nation struggling with poverty. But, exactly what region of the world is the poorest? It's Sub-Saharan Africa which refers to all the African countries located south of the Sahara. It is a region that has most of the least developed nations in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is an area greatly affected by malaria which has significantly hindered its economic growth. Its figures for malnutrition and infant mortality are severe with life expectancy of 54 years which is well below the world average of 69. The region is also affected with HIV with 34% of the total number of people living with HIV globally living in 10 countries of Southern Africa as of 2009. In addition to this Sub-Saharan Africa continues to face the effects of corrupt government, economic negligence and ethnic conflicts.

Extreme poverty..?

Have you ever wondered what extreme poverty actually means? I definitely have and so I searched the web and found that in 2005 the World Bank defined extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 a day. This is equal to living on $2 a day as of 2011! A staggering 1.4 billion people around the world live on this bare minimum each day. It's a severe and terrible state of poverty where many people struggle to feed their family with one let alone two meals a day. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation 925 million people in 2010 were estimated to suffer from chronic hunger. People in extreme poverty are deprived of basic human needs to food, water, shelter, education, health care and security. Further, the economic crisis has not helped with around 64 million more people expected to be forced into extreme poverty in 2010.