Child poverty in Africa

Child Poverty in Africa
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Abstract
The paper discusses the topic child poverty in Africa giving a brief explanation of the current situation, statistics, and causes of the issue. It discusses different policies and strategies for handling the poverty issue. For instance, the WHO is advocating for a nutritional policy, FAO is training children in poverty-stricken areas, the UN has established a policy based on the millennium goal of eliminating poverty and disease in Africa and other parts of the world. The paper describes the social institutions such as family, economy, social control, deviance, and religion. For instance, it explains that education is a significant factor in a child’s life since it determines his profession and personality. It outlines that countries that are economically poor are likely to discourage programs such as entrepreneurship due to lack of funds to implement innovative ideas. The paper also provides a detailed conclusion to offer a summary of the entire paper.

Summary of the Issue
Africa is known through facts to be the poorest continent in the world where about 75% of the people live below the poverty line. The children are the most affected by poverty since they are born in the poor African families (Sloth-Nielsen, 2016). Poverty condition makes the children to be exposed to infections and other risks such as child labor, early marriage, and sex trafficking. Currently, about 7.5 million children die annually in Africa before reaching 5 years of age due to the poverty conditions they are exposed.

Children are unable to access education and instead, their families force them to get married at an early age. Some are recruited into the army; this causes severe traumatic incidences. Also, other children are forced into labor to support their poor families (Berry & Makiwane, 2015). The situation in African states is significantly accounted to huge debts they owe developed countries such as the U.S and Japan. However, the international organizations such as UNICEF have tried to negotiate with the owed countries to cancel the debts and instead support the African nations in dealing with the poverty issue. Some of the owed nations have accepted to the international plea while others are still reflecting on the effects of canceling the debt and moving forward.
Child poverty in Africa is also contributed by wars that are cultural or tribal based; in this regard, war results in severe hunger and loss of parents that should support them. They suffer and die in large numbers. Industries and private firms employ close to 187 million children between 5-14 years of age to work under harsh or inhuman conditions. About 1.5 million children in Africa are trafficked into other countries for prostitution and forced labor. 80% of the trafficked children face the risk of contracting HIV in foreign nations (Van der Berg, Yu & Streak, 2015). Trafficked children also miss the opportunity to attend school thus, they are not able to identify their talents or pursue their careers; this makes them stagnate in poverty. Immunization of children against preventable or treatable infections also contributes to the high death rates among poor children in Africa. In this regard, about 1.3 million children die annually due to lack of immunization and healthcare information. The child poverty in Africa is a severe threat and a reflection that the continent is likely to be poorer in the future if proper intervention strategies are not improvised.
Extent of International Policies Tackling the Issue
The international organizations such as UNICEF and TANF have established campaigns in Africa and developed countries to advocate for child assistance. The organizations aim at initiating people to give donations to provide basic necessities for the children. The organizations have located poverty-stricken regions such as Malawi and the sub-Saharan Africa and Rwanda; in this regard directed their aid to these regions.
The FAO organization is offering aid to the African nations that are affected by extreme poverty. The organization provides aid through ensuring parents belonging to the poverty stricken families get enough food to sustain them longer. FAO has also initiated agricultural training approach as an intervention strategy in dealing with poverty. Africans living in poverty stricken regions are taught on better farming methods. Additionally, they are provided with financial support to enable them to practice agriculture efficiently. The FAO organization has been able to support about 29 million people in Africa to deal with poverty and establish their lives through sponsoring them to acquire an education (Berry & Makiwane, 2015).
The WHO organization has initiated a policy of safe nutrition and health management; this is focused on establishing the quality of food eaten by the children. The policy was developed and initiated based on the risk of eating unsafe food (Whitworth & Wilkinson, 2013). The organization has organized for international campaigns to contribute and help the African children languishing in poverty to acquire basic education. The WHO believes that education is one of the efficient weapons of dealing with poverty in the African continent. The organization in this regard aims at increasing the percentage of children sponsored to pursue their careers.
The WHO organization has managed to initiate free immunization of preventable diseases such as polio. Most African countries, especially in the southern region have many people that suffer from preventable diseases. Also, pregnant mothers have been catered for through provision of medication and treatment clinics; this has increased the number of women that deliver their children safely. The organization has additionally developed a policy on health care for children that are traumatized by the effects of poverty such as human trafficking. These children are taken to centers where they are helped to regain their normal perception of the society.
The UNHCR organization has established a policy of assisting African children, especially those in harsh countries to acquire citizenship and educational sponsorship in America. About 43% of the children that are orphaned or abandoned along foreign borders are victims of severe conflicts, war and abuse of human rights (Cluver et al., 2013). The organization in this regard has established different children centers and temporary schools for traumatized and poor children.
The UN has established a policy in the millennium goals that is focused on providing clean water and to prevent waterborne disease infection. Statistically, close to 50% of the African children are infected with Cholera and diarrhea and without an urgent response, the children may end up dying (Van der Berg et al., 2015). The UN has initiated a policy on minimizing conflicts and war situations in African countries. This is attainable through organizing campaigns to inform the people on the importance of peace in a nation. Additionally, the campaign aims at educating people on various ways of solving conflicts within the country.
Social Institutions and Child Poverty
Family
Most African countries have limited knowledge on the importance of educating their children. Also, they do not understand the role of the school in the society. Once a child is born, he or she is raised with the cultural norms of the community that do not regard education as important. The child is involved in cultural rites that are marked as maturity stages. When he/she turns into the teenage stage, he or she is introduced to marriage; this kind of life limits the exposure of children such that they consider their parents as role models and choose to live life the way they have been culturally brought up. The fact that majority of these children are born in poor and conservative African families and they do not have access to education; this makes them be victims of poverty.
Education
About 76% of the uneducated people in Africa live below the poverty line; in this regard, children born into these families are likely to be poor (Cluver et al., 2013). Illiterate people also lack information on the role of children in the society as many view them as a source of cheap labor. Therefore, the children are forced into cheap labor, but they not paid; instead, their parents take the wages. The level of poverty intensifies as the children are unable to access education for a brighter future.
Religion
Society considers religion as one of the most important institutions that help in instilling morals in children and adults. However, some of the religions in Africa do not advocate for education and better lifestyle. The attendants are forced to live a life below the poverty line. For instance, the children are informed that it is a sin to acquire an education (Van der Berg et al., 2015). Some of the religions forbid the society from engaging in business to improve their lives. Also, region discourages the use of family planning methods thus, most families have many children that they cannot comfortably feed and/ or educate. Additionally, children are introduced to the religion that makes them conform to the poverty lifestyle of their parents.
Economy
The economic status of a country determines the number of people that can be supported through school and the salaries and wages offered to the government and private-sector employees. African countries are characterized by poor economies and some are in debt of the developed nations; this causes high inflation rates that affect the budgetary provision of these countries. About 40 % of the African countries are unable to sponsor their children in acquiring education or live better lifestyles (Berry & Makiwane, 2015). Additionally, they do not consider the economic statistics to advise people on family planning so that the population can be regulated and children are given a better lifestyle. Instead, the politicians and other government agencies ignore the impact of population increase in countries with limited resources. The countries with low economic performance do not subsidize for treatment and healthcare services. This results in constant child sickness, which consumes a lot of the family income encouraging child poverty.
Social Control
The society has a culture with norms and behaviors that are used to distinguish between moral and immoral behaviors or practices. The people follow the provisions of culture for them to coexist peacefully. In this regard, the culture of some societies in Africa controls the behavior of an individual member of a community (Cluver et al., 2013). In regions where the level of child poverty is high, the social culture is a significant contributor. The culture discourages people from hardworking, resulting in extreme poverty. The social control especially targets income generating activities such that the parents become poor and transmit their poverty to the children.
Deviance
Deviance from the society does not result in child poverty in Africa in the sense that the people that avoid their culture understand and want freedom through engaging in behavior that minimizes the chances of their children becoming poor. For instance, the culture may be against education or entrepreneurship, but through deviance, one is able to better his/ her life.
Conclusion
Child poverty in African countries affects close to 52% of the continent’s entire population. It is caused by human trafficking, lack of access to medication for preventable diseases, wars, and cultural violence. International organizations have developed policies and strategies to intervene in the issue. For instance, the WHO has a policy of safe nutrition for African children, UNHCR developed a policy that protects African children in harsh countries and FAO has initiated a strategy of training Agriculture to people in poverty-stricken regions of Africa. These strategies are reducing the percentage of child poverty in the continent.

References
Berry, L., & Makiwane, M. (2015). Toward the development of a family policy for South Africa: a call for an effective, robust poverty alleviation strategy.
Cluver, L., Boyes, M., Orkin, M., & Sherr, L. (2013). Poverty, AIDS and child health: Identifying highest-risk children in South Africa. SAMJ: South African Medical Journal, 103(12), 910-915.
Sloth-Nielsen, J. (Ed.). (2016). Children’s Rights in Africa: A legal perspective. Routledge.Van der Berg, S., Yu, D., & Streak, J. C. (2015). Measuring child poverty in South Africa: sensitivity to the choice of equivalence scale and an updated profile.Whitworth, A., & Wilkinson, K. (2013). Tackling child poverty in South Africa: Implications of ubuntu for the system of social grants. Development Southern Africa, 30(1), 121-134.