Project rationale - Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Justification

The African continent is faced with widespread, extreme poverty—what economist Jeffrey Sachs (2005) describes as “poverty that kills”.  Eliminating this condition remains one of the greatest challenges facing African and international leaders. While over the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic reduction in poverty in certain parts of the world, for the Sub-Saharan Africa it has just been increasing. In 1981, there were 163 million people living in poverty and by 2001 the number had grown to 312 million, majorities of whom living in rural areas.  From 1980 to 2000, the per-capita GDP of the region actually shrank by 13%, from $580 to $502. Until now, the volume of money that circulates in the hands of the agrarian majority remains limited and at a very low rate: thus capturing the communities in continuous poverty traps. This has also weakened the sustainability of most of the social economic interventions as the condition yields to a spending cash flow environment for most programs targeting Africa’s agrarian communities.