From the 2006 United Nations triennial review, 33 of the world’s 50 least developed countries were in Africa (including 8 of the 10 poorest countries). Poverty in Africa results from a number of different, interacting factors, making the problem of entrenched poverty difficult to solve. Some of the major causes include:
- War and armed conflict
- Poor farming policies and lack of access to finance and credit
- High levels of unemployment
- Variable access to education
- Endemic infectious diseases
- Chronic disease
About 2 million Africans became infected with HIV in 2008. There is an accompanying resurgence of tuberculosis affecting both those who are immuno-compromised and their close contacts. Deaths from malaria also total more than a million per year, a high proportion being young children. Compounding these problems is the widespread lack of water and the looming spectre of climate change. The link between disease and poverty is easy to see. Sick workers earn less for their families; employers lose productivity and profit; family members have to stay home from work or school to care for their ailing relative. In many villages, elderly grandparents who have lost several adult children to AIDS are working to feed several orphaned grandchildren. It is difficult to feed all those mouths and find all those school fees.
Healthcare providers
Doctors, and other health care providers, are in short supply, with demanding, low paid jobs in the government sector, so migration to cities and more affluent countries is often an irresistible option. Nurses and clinical officers, who understandably need their own CME / CPD, are consequently doing a lot of the clinical care in government clinics. In several countries a Masters in Medicine degree is the specialist qualification equivalent to MRCP (UK), though often with a research component. Few countries have sub-specialty exams and there are few if any, national accreditation systems that require evidence for continuing professional development.
News
Dec 2009: RCP launch joint project with West African College of Physicians to raise standards of patient care
The RCP and West African College of Physicians launched of a collaborative project as part of a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions during the 33rd Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the WACP in Monrovia, Liberia, on the 14 November 2009.