The Challenge Of Population Growth In Africa Economics Essay

The Challenge Of Population developing In Africa Economics EssayIt is generally agreed that the challenge of universe step-up is one of the most serious obstacles to victimization faced by LDCs in the 21st century. In the long process of human history, the relationship between the merchandise of material goods and human counterpart is forever and a day interdependent. Therefore, a certain rescue is the foundation of the existence and development of human beings meanwhile, the reproduction of human beings is the condition for the development of scotch system. The historical experience has proved that the nation egression has to keep relative balance with the development level of providence otherwise, the human society will be punished by reputation certainly.It is undeniable that the fertility of Africa is always out of control since the independence of Afri crowd out countries. In 1970s and 1980s, the aver progress fertility range of Africa reached 6.8 and 6.7 however, it was still high-pitched was around 5.4 in 2004 1. Besides the high fertility rate, the size of African tribe has never stopped increasing. In 1960, the African race was 282 billion, which was 9.3 of the humans population however, in 2005, the African population had reached 906 million, which was 14.0 of the whole population in the world 2, in the 45 years, the African population ontogenyd trebly. Since Africa has the highest population harvest-feast rate and the punt largest population in the world, the population sum will put much pressure on the development of economy though Africa is always suffering from poverty. To get through difficult situations, the African countries have to recognize the negative effects of rapid population growth on the development of economy.First, the poor jacket accumulation is the bottleneck of development in Africa. The development of economy requires solid foundation, and the material upper-case letter is the creator ability of the d evelopment. The classical economist, Adam Smith emphasized that the accumulation of capital was the precondition of specialization 3. For African least developed countries, they have abounding resource and dig out, and the capital input can determine the level of frugal development. Either of low capital getup ratio and poor capital accumulation will hinder the development. According to the demographers estimation, an 1 increase on the population will lead the country to pay 3 to 4 of gross national income on the investment of additional population 4. If more national income invests on the population growth, which means the investment on production will be limited strongly. As the rapid increase on the population in Africa, the structure of population is very spring chickenful and the youth dependency ratio is always highest in the world 5. Every year, African governments have to take a certain share of new output value to invest on the latest additional population, but Africa is likewise the region comprising many poorest countries. In 2000, the World Bank do prevalent a name list of fifty nine poorest counties in the world, and 30 eight of them were in Africa 6. Therefore, substantial fund have been ate by the large population, which leads to low saving ratio and large financial gap.The second negative effect of the large population on LDCs refers to the low type of the population. In fact, the quality of population can determine the quality of labor directly, and human capital is always regarded as the key of the scotch development. Theodore Schultz, the chance uponr of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, believed that a wellness and exceedingly educated population was playing an important role in a countrys development 7. However, the high rise of African population really hinders the avail of human capital. On one hand, the investment from governments on education has pass along much behind the rapid population growth in Africa, which leads to extremely heavy pressure on the education, such as the shortage of educational expenditures and teachers, low school enrollment ratio, high illiteracy rate. In 2001, the UNESCO inform that Africa was the poorest continent in education where the literacy rate was less than 60 8. On the other hand, since the mid of 1970s, the African population growth rate was always going beyond the agricultural productivity rate, the self-sufficiency rate of shred and the per capita food expenditure kept decreasing. According to the Malthusian Population Trap, the universal proposition tendency for the population of a country will grow at a geometric rate, however, the food supplies can expand only at a arithmetic tae 9. Therefore, the food supplies can never satisfy the exact by rapid population growth in Africa. In fact, the African malnutrition population increased from 94 million in 1970s to 210 million in 1990s 10, and now the per capita food expenditure for African populat ion reaches only 85 of the standard set by United Nations 11. Since the African economy really depends on the agriculture and the export of primary products, the fleshly labor is still needed in the most regions. So, we have to suspect such large unhealthy and uneducated population could make contributions to the economic development in 21st century.Third, the LDCs have to face the high un piece of work rate which is brought by rapid population growth. Todaro points that an excess of project seekers over bank line opportunities in the LDC economy is the one of the major negative consequences of population growth 12. In fact, it is normal that every country has a certain sum of people are in unemployment, but once the proportion of unemployment is excess, the economic development will be hindered and the whole society will flummox instable. Since the independence of Africa, every year the population within working age is becoming larger, and the labor force growth rate has exce ssed the economy growth rate, the economic sectors cannot create enough job opportunities to fulfill needs. In 1990s, at that place were average 10 million African people seeking job per year, however, the economic sectors could only absorb half of the additional labor force 13. Even though the largest economy in Africa, the unemployment rate of South Africa was 41.8 in 2002 14. We can imagine how terribly high the unemployment rate of other more backward African countries is. Therefore, substantial labor force cannot be made full use of in Africa which really hinders the enlargement of production surmount and optimization of industrial structure, in return, the economic backwardness will increase the unemployment rate. Eventually, it is hard for the LDCs to get rid of the vicious circle which combines high employment rate and poor economy.In fact, the population growth is a electroneutral phenomenon, in the 3/4 time of 20th century, the development of economy was accompanied by the population growth. However, the rapid population growth can slow down the economy growth and hinder the improvement of financial backing standard, especially for LDCs whose foundation of economy is quite weak. If LDCs really want to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, they should recognize the importance of education and health to control the rapid population growth immediately.