Geography Teaching Today

This lesson explore why some countries are home to far fewer billionaires than others (and by extension why some countries and regions are much poorer than others)

Key questions:

• What are the challenges facing countries in generating wealth?
• What factors might be responsible for the lack of billionaires in Africa?

Key Concepts:
Environmental interaction and sustainable development
Space

What are the challenges facing countries in generating wealth?

In general, there are historical, environmental, socio-economic and political reasons why some countries and regions are not as wealthy as others. Historical factors include the legacy of colonialism. Environmental factors include a lack of natural resources or a climate that makes it prone to extremes of drought or flood making it hard to establish crops other or economic activity. Socio-economic factors include debt, unfair trade, and the low status of women, education and health/disease. Political factors include conflict, wars and corruption.
 

What factors might be responsible for the lack of wealth in Africa?
The main historical reason is that most of the poorest African countries were until relatively recently once colonised by European countries and are still recovering from the legacies of a lack of good industry, education and skills, and often, conflict. African countries have inherited a legacy dominated by trade with their former colonial rulers rather than with each other. For example, Senegal's biggest trading partner is France, while Gambia trades extensively with the UK. Senegal surrounds Gambia but there is little trade between the two countries.

Environmental factors include the dry climate of the Sahara so that there is always danger of famine. Some countries are prone to natural disasters floods in particular. The forested or mountainous terrain also makes farming difficult in some countries. 90% of all malaria cases in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa. 3,000 children under the age of 5 die each day from malaria in Africa and 17 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have died from AIDS. The range and transmission potential of malaria could increase. The effect of this on Africa's human resources ability to work is a major factor especially where treatments are not accessible.

Although business people in Africa often face some unique and daunting challenges, it is still quite possible to achieve business success and help a country's development. This has been helped by the achievements in:

Increased political stability
The creation of the African Union to promote unity and solidarity of African countries and act as a collective voice for the continent.

Economic development
2006 was the 4th consecutive year of economic growth above 4% in Africa. Oil and mineral exporting countries are outpacing the others by a substantial margin. Botswana and South Africa have experienced economic success. The economies of Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon and Egypt are all growing.

AFRICA'S ECONOMIC REGIONS
The big oil exporters - 27.7% of Africa's population

18 resource-poor countries with sustained growth - 35.6% of population

17 slow-growth economies - 36.7% of population - countries with few natural resources are conflict-prone

China is investing in African oil exploration and minerals, particularly in Sudan, Nigeria and Zambia to meet its rapidly-growing consumption. At the same time Africa is a growing market for Chinese goods. Trade has increased tenfold since 1995. The value of this has jumped 39% to £18 billion in 2005

Click on an activity:
Starter
Main activity
Plenary

Interactives:  
Risky world

Downloads:  

Africa Issues map

PDF of challenges pictures

All billionaires by region