FOOD
World wide, 841 million people
are malnourished. In sub-Saharan Africa, the only world region not to have
seen a steady decline in malnutrition in the last three decades, the number
of under-nourished more than doubled from 103 mn in 1970 to 215 mn in 1990.
With a sliver of an increase from 2,225 to 2,237 between 1970 and 1995,
the average daily calorie intake in the region remains below the minimum
requirement of 2,300. In developing countries as a whole, the average intake
rose from 2,131 to 2,572 calories.
SHELTER
More than a billion people live in inadequate shelter, without piped water,
electricity or roads. Between 30 and 60 per cent of people in developing
countries live in illegal settlements, and around 100 million people are
homeless.
WATER
1.3 billion people (or 30 per cent
of the population of developing countries, including 48 per cent of sub-Saharan
Africans) have no access to safe water.
HEALTH
48 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans
(and 880 million people world wide) do not have access to health services.
The region has the highest under-five mortality rate in the world, and almost
one in three of its people die before age 40.
EDUCATION
There are 885 million illiterate
adults world wide, and 109 million of the world's primary-school-age children
(22 per cent of the total number) are out of school. In sub-Saharan Africa,
one out of three children does not reach grade 5, and 42 per cent of adults
are illiterate.
SANITATION
2.6 billion people (nearly 60 per
cent of the population of developing countries, including 55 per cent of
sub-Saharan Africans) do not have basic sanitation.
SOIL DEGRADATION
Africa lost 4 mn hectares of forest
in the 1980s, while 494 mn hectares of soil has been degraded in sub-Saharan
Africa in the 1990s. The world loses every year $42 bn of income due to
desertification, of which Africa's loss is $9 bn.
BASIC AMENITIES
Due to the lack of easy access
to water, fuel and transport, rural women in developing countries spend
six to eight hours a day fetching firewood and water.