Africa: The Continent Facing Political And Economic Uncertainty.
African economy is now getting elevated, and some of the nations are the fastest growing economy in the world. According to World Bank figure 2016, 9 out of the 20 fastest growing economy on the globe was from Africa. Human Development Index has improved, and it’s getting better each day. They are now rising and can become the next powerhouse for the global economy. A stable Africa is good for global economy, the favorable demographic change, booming commodity prices, growing manufacturing and service economy, emerging middle-class and youth enthusiasm for technology are the driving factors, although political instability has profoundly hurt the region. Southern and central Africa has emerged stronger after the crisis, but North Africa is still under the political crisis. Improving political situations in southern Africa and central Africa have helped the region to come out of the decades-old social and economic depression. Democracy is rooting into the African blood, and The participation of African citizen to it has surprised and amazed the world. The voter turn out during regular ballet in some of the countries are reaching over 80 percent, which is the biggest victory for Africa, as improving social justice and economic alleviation are taking place simultaneously unlike China.
Most of the economic and social indicators in Africa are positive, but still, the region is one of the most volatile places. The aggressive increment in the unemployment rate, a growing working population, and a very high fertility rate are the major challenges in the region. Half of the African graduates are unemployed, and youth unemployment is the major political and socio-economic concerns in Africa. World Bank has forecasted the largest “youth bulges” in the world to be present here, and Africa will add 42.5 million youth to it between 2010 and 2020. The unemployment rate in northern Africa is remaining elevated to 29.3 percent in 2016, but the impressive decrease in this has been experienced in sub-Saharan countries, which is continued to follow the downward trajectory in 2012, has reached to 10.9 percent, and have been forecasted to further decline in the following years. Although the unemployment has been decreasing in the region, the working poverty is still looming up, it was 70 percent in 2016 among the youth. Around 64.4 million working youth are facing extreme and moderate working poverty, and they are forced to live with less than US $ 3.10 per day wages. The fertility rate is another factor for Africa to deal with, as they have the highest fertility rate in the world. Every woman in Africa has an average five children over their reproductive lifetime which is far more than the global average of 2.5 children for each woman. The high fertility rate is associated with poor economic development, low living standards, low educational attainment, and high disease burden. Although there are some countries which have considerably low fertility rate, Mauritius (1.5), Seychelles (2.3), South Africa (2.4), and Cape Verde (2.4) are leading the region.
Migration of African youth has created an unprecedented crisis in the western world. Due to Armed conflict, lack of employment, natural disaster and poor infrastructure, youth are migrating permanently out of the continent. The climate change has adversely impacted this region, the continent is facing continuous flood and drought, which has been impacting agriculture output, as a result, millions of people are facing the risks of starvation. Southern Africa is still recovering from the devastating impact of El Nino, is known for the global drought, flooding and other natural disasters in 2014-2016, and was one of the most severe in last few decades. Terrorism is another factor which has mostly engulfed northern Africa, Arab spring had spread across the region. Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia are the most affected countries, as a result, millions of people are killed in the decade-long armed conflict, and the US-led western military was forced to intervene to protect the human rights.
Political instability has been impacting the economic interest of African and has been going through the unprecedented security uncertainty. It has disrupted the FDI flow over the time. High profile corruption in southern Africa has further complicated the situation, which has damaged the reputation of South Africa as one the strongest economy on the continent. People are protesting and struggling across Africa to establish a fair democracy, and are actively participating to protect the democratic values. There are many countries where power transition has taken place peacefully from authoritarian to democratic government, but there are countries in Northern Africa where it has been proved to be a painful and bloodshed event. Democratic value means not just the regular ballet but it means civil liberties, political freedom, unbiased judiciary and a secular constitution, Africa has to go long way for it, the democratic deficit still exists everywhere in African nations. A group of Authoritarians are still in power, they are ruling either by amending the constitution to extend their terms of office, either by managing the election or by repressing the opposition and civil societies. As many as 9 leaders in Africa are in power over 20 years, president of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Mbosgo, Angola’s Jose Santos, and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni are in power from last 30 years. Now most of them are facing public backlash. Although African are not just alone where authoritarian, oppressive regimes and undemocratic government exists, the whole Arabian Peninsula, countries in Russian periphery, few South American nations and some of the ASEAN countries have such regimes. Africa is now enjoying relatively good governance, 2016 Freedom in the World report, Freedom house reported Nigeria, Liberia and Ivory Coast are the countries among biggest democratic improvement has taken place in the world, and Botswana, Ghana, Cape Verde and Benin are also appreciated in the report.
The whole continent is divided on the basis of religion, language, and ethnicity, and have a number of territorial disputes. Discord and mistrust exist among the nations, united and integrated Africa is in the interest of its own security and prosperity, which will help to attain the global peace, the goal of UNSC. African Union was created in 2002 consisting of 55 African nations to promote the unity and security among the nations. It facilitates to honor territorial integrity and sovereignty of member nations. Africa is now rising and is going in the right direction of achieving the fair democracy and stable economy.