What are the main obstacles to Africa's sustainable development?

1. Population, resources and environment. Population, resources (mainly natural resources here) and environment are the most basic elements of social and economic development. The uncoordinated phenomenon of these three basic elements in African countries is the main factor that restricts their social and economic sustainable development. The characteristics of population quantity and quality From independence to the early 1990s, the economic growth of African countries showed a downward trend, while the population growth showed an upward trend. According to statistics, during 1965- 1970, the average annual population growth rate in Africa was 2.63%, while during 1985- 1990, the average annual population growth rate reached 3%. This high growth rate made the population of Africa expand rapidly, from 275 million in 1960 to 468 million in 1980 and 680 million in 1993. With the expansion of population, a series of phenomena such as younger population, abnormal urbanization and low quality of population have appeared.

1 The population is younger. The population growth rate is high, and Africans can double every 20 years. In addition, the average life expectancy in Africa is the lowest in the world, and the extremely young population has become one of the most obvious characteristics of Africans. According to statistics, among the total population in Africa, young people aged 0- 15 account for 40-50%, and only 5% are over 65. Generally speaking, young people can reserve enough labor resources for economic development, but for African countries with relatively backward economic development level, the existence of a large number of young people is a potential threat to economic development. First of all, the existence of a large number of young people is a potential factor for further population expansion. African women are used to marrying early and having many children. A woman has more than six children in her life, which is the highest in the world. Faced with a series of socio-economic problems caused by population expansion, many African countries have put forward various countermeasures to control population growth since 1970s. By the second half of1980s, about three-quarters of African countries had made family planning plans, and some countries even set their own population growth targets. However, most countries' plans only stay on their heads and have not been put into action. They did not popularize the knowledge of family planning, nor did they provide the necessary birth control tools and drugs, thus making the population reproduction in fact out of control. Therefore, as long as African countries do not seriously implement the basic national policy of family planning as soon as possible, a new round of population expansion will be inevitable, and the pressure that population expansion may bring to the African continent with extremely limited carrying capacity can be imagined. Secondly, the existence of a large number of young people poses a severe challenge to education in all countries. Due to poor foundation and lack of funds, education in Africa has been very backward. This is manifested in the general lack of educational infrastructure in various countries. Whether it is primary school, middle school or university, the number of schools is far from meeting the needs of students. Coupled with the serious shortage of teachers, teaching materials and various teaching equipment, the enrollment rate of universities, primary and secondary schools in African countries is very low. A joint survey conducted by UNESCO and the World Bank 1989 shows that the enrollment rates of primary school students, middle school students and college students in sub-Saharan Africa are 7 1%, 20% and 2.4% respectively. Compared with before independence, African countries have made great achievements in education, but compared with other parts of the world, the gap in Africa is also quite large. However, this limited educational resource is currently facing a large number of children and adolescents who need to go to school. Therefore, it doesn't seem too much to describe the current situation of education in Africa with "education crisis". Finally, the existence of a large number of young people will aggravate the unemployment crisis in Africa. Due to the long-term economic depression, Africa has been one of the regions with the highest unemployment rate in the world, especially the high urban unemployment rate, which has caused headaches for governments all over the world. According to the investigation of relevant experts, in the second half of 1960s, the unemployment rate in African cities and towns was between 10-35%. In 1970s and 1980s, the unemployment rate in most cities and towns was around 20%, and some even exceeded 50%. Only some cities and towns in North Africa and Southern Africa had unemployment rates below 10% due to immigration restrictions. Since the 1990s, the employment opportunities in cities have only increased by 2.4% every year, while the labor force has increased by 3.3%, so the urban unemployment rate has been above 30%. With the passage of time, young people will flood into the labor market in batches, which can not but make the already severe employment situation worse. This is not only related to the economic development of all countries, but also to the social stability of all countries.

2. Abnormal urbanization From the perspective of urban and rural population distribution, Africa is still the continent with the lowest degree of urbanization in the world. 1990 The demography of sub-Saharan Africa shows that the urban population only accounts for about13 of the total population, including 20% in East Africa, 32% in West Africa, 38% in Central Africa and 42% in Southern Africa. From the perspective of specific countries, the proportion of urban population is even different. For example, Djibouti and South Africa account for 865,438+0% and 60% of their total population respectively, while Rwanda, Burundi and Burkina Faso account for less than 65,438+00% of their total population. However, the most worrying thing is the speed of urbanization in Africa. According to the research of foreign experts, during the 30 years from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, the average annual growth rate of urban population in Africa was 5%, which was the fastest in the world. For example, the urban population in West Africa was106,000 in 1960, and it has increased to 56.3 million in 1990, and is expected to reach 97 million in 2000; The urban population of East Africa was 5.7 million in 1960, increased to 32.7 million in 1990 and will reach 73.6 million in 2000. 1960 The urban population of Central Africa is 6.3 million, which will reach 47.3 million in 2000. 1960, there were only two cities with a population of over 500,000 in sub-Saharan Africa. By 1990, there were 19 cities with a population of over100000. Michel Severi, Director of the Development Department of the French Ministry of Cooperation, said that by 2020, 65% of the population in Africa will live in cities. Urbanization is a symbol of industrialization, modernization and economic development of a country or region. However, the rapid development of urbanization in Africa is not the result of the development of productive forces, but the result of a large number of rural people blindly pouring into cities under the background of population expansion. For example, foreign scholars' statistics on the urban population of Nigeria and Tanzania in the 1970s show that rural population entering cities accounts for about 60% of the urban population growth.

Obviously, this is a kind of abnormal urbanization, which not only causes a series of urban problems, but also becomes a major constraint factor for economic development. First of all, the abnormal expansion of urban population greatly exceeds the development speed and carrying capacity of the city itself, which makes the city face long-term problems in housing, employment, food supply, transportation and environmental management. Taking housing as an example, urban housing in African countries has become a big problem in the face of the influx of people into cities. In the case that cities cannot provide adequate housing, farmers who enter cities often build simple temporary housing in urban fringe areas, and dense slums have become a common landscape in African cities. Slums have no basic living facilities, and drinking water, sanitation and traffic conditions are very bad. At the same time, the chaotic slums cause chaotic urban layout and land shortage, which challenges the urban planning and construction department. Another big problem is the employment problem in the aging population that we have already mentioned. Because the vast majority of the rural population flowing into cities are illiterate or lack of professional training, their job choices are narrow and it is difficult to find jobs. Therefore, many people will inevitably face long-term or short-term unemployment. Secondly, the abnormal expansion of urban population has also seriously damaged the rural economic development of African countries. Young and middle-aged labor force is the main force of rural population flowing into cities. The reason why they left the countryside is related to the long-term stagnation of agricultural production in African countries and the poverty of rural residents. And their departure has reduced the precious human capital in rural Africa, thus making the already backward African agricultural economy even less energetic. The rural areas without vitality will often force more and more rural youth to flow to cities to make a living, forming a vicious circle.

3. The quality of people with low population quality includes physical quality, knowledge level and moral level. The population quality discussed in this paper mainly refers to people's knowledge quality. It is the basis for human beings to understand and transform nature, which not only has a decisive impact on the living environment and working environment of individuals, but also often directly affects the economic development level of a country. Since independence for more than 30 years, the gap between the African continent and the rest of the world has been widening. One of the important reasons is the low quality of the population accompanied by the rapid increase of population, which is highlighted by the large number of illiterate people in African countries. According to statistics, the illiteracy rate of adults over 0/5 in sub-Saharan Africa is as high as 50%, even higher than 80% in some countries such as Burkina Faso. High adult illiteracy rate means low quality of labor force. In today's era of rapid development of science and technology, production demands higher and higher quality of labor force. The knowledge level of labor force not only determines the level of labor productivity, the competitiveness of enterprise economy, but also determines the comprehensive strength of national economy. The existence of a large number of low-quality labor forces in Africa makes the labor productivity of all countries low, the competitiveness of enterprises weak and the development of countries weak. Moreover, because low-quality laborers can only engage in simple skilled labor and rarely engage in complex modern skilled labor, many African countries have to hire people from industrialized countries to engage in some modern production activities instead of them, but their own laborers can't find jobs.

In addition, the low quality of the labor force has increasingly become the main obstacle to attracting foreign investment in Africa. Nowadays, international capital pays more attention to the knowledge quality of the labor force itself, especially for those high-tech enterprises, although it also values the low labor price when choosing investment destinations. In this case, the low quality of the population has seriously affected the entry of international capital into the African market.

The exploitation and utilization of natural resources is the material basis of human survival and social development, and it is also the material basis of social sustainable development. From a global perspective, with the economic development and population increase in various countries, the contradiction between the supply capacity of natural resources and human demand for natural resources has become increasingly prominent. Therefore, how to fully and reasonably develop and utilize natural resources has become an urgent task for all countries to realize the strategy of social and economic sustainable development. For Africa, although nature has endowed the African continent with extremely rich resources, the development and utilization of resources has become one of the main problems faced by African countries in view of the fact that African economy is a raw material consumption economy based on the production and export of primary products, coupled with the pressure of population expansion and the fact that there are many small African countries and the geographical distribution of natural resources is extremely unbalanced.

1 Exploitation and utilization of mineral resources The African continent is famous for its rich mineral resources. Africa has more than 50 kinds of the most important minerals in the world. In addition, many mineral resources in Africa, whether proven reserves or output, occupy an important position in the world.

Unfortunately, for a long time, Africa's rich mineral resources have not been well developed and utilized by African countries, and Africa has not benefited from its unique natural endowment. For example, gold and diamonds are recognized as symbols of wealth. However, Africa, which produces nearly 1/3 gold and 1/2 diamonds in the world, has not become rich because of this, but has been in a state of poverty and backwardness for a long time. This has a lot to do with the fact that African countries only attach importance to the exploitation and export of mineral resources, but not to rational utilization. According to statistics, the annual output value of mineral products in African countries exceeds $35 billion. However, except for South Africa, most countries' mineral products are only for export, and they are exchanged for foreign exchange through export, but they are not directly converted into effective resources for developing their own economies. This export-oriented resource utilization mode is not only vulnerable to price fluctuations in the international market, but also unfavorable to the transformation of the single economic structure of African countries. It is particularly noteworthy that mineral resources are basically non-renewable resources, or their regeneration rate is minimal. The formation speed of this resource is unmatched by the speed of human development. For example, oil was formed by forest geological carbonization deposited 200-300 million years ago, and its circulation time far exceeds human history. Therefore, such resources are always used less and less, and will eventually be in danger of drying up. Due to over-exploitation, some African countries have experienced resource depletion. Therefore, it is particularly necessary for African countries to rationally develop and utilize these resources. 2. Energy shortage and development and utilization of hydropower resources.

Agricultural problems

Bread is the pillar of life. Agriculture, as an industrial sector, is of great significance to the economic development of any country. Africa is a continent dominated by agriculture. The backwardness of agriculture not only makes the problem of "human food" face a crisis, but also makes the sustainable development of social economy in various countries face many difficulties.

The position of agriculture in African economic development

Africa is a continent with a long history of agricultural production. At present, agriculture is still the mainstay, which plays a very important role in the national economy of all countries and even plays a decisive role. The statistics of the World Bank are more telling: in Africa as a whole, agricultural employees account for 70% of the total number of employees on the African continent, agricultural exports account for 40% of the total export value of the African continent, and agricultural output value accounts for 35% of the gross domestic product of the African continent. Let's make a concrete analysis from these figures.

First of all, in most African countries, agriculture is the main source of employment, food and various industrial raw materials. As mentioned earlier, although the urbanization in Africa is developing at an alarming rate, the urban population is only a minority and the rural population accounts for the vast majority. The economic activities of the rural population are nothing more than agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline and fishery. Therefore, agriculture is not only the main channel to solve the employment and eating problems of rural residents, but also the main channel to provide food and industrial raw materials for urban residents.

Second, agriculture is the main source of foreign exchange income for many African countries. Africa belongs to the tropical continent and is suitable for the growth of many tropical cash crops. Cocoa, coffee, peanuts, cotton, oil palm, sisal, tea, sugarcane and tobacco produced and exported by African countries occupy a very important position in the global market. For example, cocoa in Ghana and C? te d 'Ivoire, coffee in Uganda and Burundi, peanuts in Gambia and Senegal, cotton in Chad and Burkina Faso, tobacco in Zimbabwe and Malawi, fish in Mauritania, sugar in Mauritius, live animals in Somalia, etc. , is an important part of their foreign exchange income.

Therefore, without the rapid development of agriculture, Africa cannot achieve sustainable social and economic development. Agricultural crisis since 1980s and its causes.

In 1960s, the average annual growth rate of agricultural production in Africa was 2.7%, slightly lower than the natural population growth rate, but higher than the average annual growth rate of agricultural production in the world of 2.6%. During the 20 years from 1970 to 1990, the average annual growth rate of agricultural production in Africa dropped to 1.4%, which was only about 1/2 of the natural population growth rate. Especially due to the severe drought in 1980s, agricultural production in most African countries was hit hard and fell into agricultural crisis. Its outstanding performance is that the agricultural growth rate has been declining year after year, the food supply is in short supply, and the production and export of cash crops are sluggish. 1 Food shortage is getting worse and worse, and hunger threatens the whole continent.

In 1950s and 1960s, most African countries were self-sufficient in grain, and some even exported surplus grain. However, since the mid-1970s, with the population expansion and agricultural crisis, food shortage has increasingly become a very common and serious problem on the African continent. According to the statistics of FAO 1987, among 54 countries and regions in Africa, there are 19 countries with food self-sufficiency rate below 60% and extreme food shortage; The self-sufficiency rate is 60-79%, and the serious food shortage is12; The self-sufficiency rate is 80-94%, and the food shortage is 1 1. The third category has 42 countries and regions, accounting for 78% of the total number of African countries and regions, accounting for more than 3/4 of Africa's total land area and population. From the perspective of per capita grain possession (including output and import), the problem of food shortage in Africa is more serious. For example, in 1962, Africa's per capita grain possession reached193kg, while in 1980 it fell to186kg, and in 1987 it was only164kg.

The phenomenon of food shortage has not changed since 1990s. The direct consequence of food shortage is that more and more Africans are threatened by malnutrition and hunger. According to the survey of FAO, the average daily food energy supply in sub-Saharan Africa is 2,070 kcal, which is 22% lower than the world average (2,660 kcal) and 40% lower than the developed country average (3,390 kcal). According to statistics, during 1.969- 1.990, the number of malnourished people in Africa was1.01.001.000 billion, which has now increased to 1.68 billion. As many as 4.5 million children in Africa die of malnutrition every year; In some countries, malnutrition leads to many diseases. For example, in Ethiopia 12% of adults and 40% of children suffer from anemia in different degrees. The lack of food has made Africa a globally recognized "hungry continent".

Due to the serious food shortage, Africa has to rely on a lot of food aid and food imports. According to statistics, the food aid to Africa from international organizations and some major grain-producing countries is 1974- 1975, accounting for 20.6% of the total food aid in the world. In 1979- 1980, it increased to 3.662 million tons, accounting for 41.2%; 1985- 1986 increased to 5.802 million tons, accounting for 53.7%, with 49 recipient countries. International food aid has become one way to alleviate food shortage in many African countries, and another way is to import a large amount of food. For example, in 1974, Africa's grain imports were only 3.9 million tons, but by 1993, it had increased to18.2 million tons. Imported food costs foreign exchange in many countries. In order to ensure the basic livelihood of urban residents and stabilize social order, these countries often allocate special funds for food price subsidies. Double burden has become the main reason for the deterioration of financial situation in many African countries.

2. The sluggish production and export of cash crops has led to financial difficulties in many countries.

As mentioned earlier, the production and export of cash crops are an important source of foreign exchange income for many African countries. However, in the past 30 years, although most cash crops in Africa have increased to varying degrees, the proportion of a considerable number of crops in the world's total output has declined.

Agriculture and sustainable development

The important position of agriculture in African national economy determines that African countries must get rid of the agricultural crisis in order to realize the sustainable development of social economy. Because the development of agriculture directly affects the operation of the whole national economy.

In the 1970s, the World Bank conducted a survey on African countries whose agricultural output value exceeded 20% of GDP. The results show that among the 65,438+00 countries with an average annual growth rate of agricultural production of more than 3%, 5 countries have a GDP of more than 5%, 3 countries are between 3-5% and 2 countries are below 3%. On the contrary, among the 13 countries whose average annual growth rate of agricultural production is lower than 1%, there are 10 countries whose average annual growth rate of GDP is lower than 1%.

The case of Cameroon is a better proof. Before independence, its agriculture was very backward and its food could not be self-sufficient. After independence, the government has always regarded agriculture as the focus and foundation of national economic development, and vigorously developed the production of food crops and cash crops, which not only ensured food self-sufficiency, but also promoted the vigorous development of national economy. In the past few years, despite the general economic downturn in African countries, Cameroon's economy has continued to develop, which is not unrelated to its good agricultural foundation. Unfortunately, an example like Cameroon is really rare in Africa.

However, as long as African countries really attach importance to agriculture, it is not difficult to develop agriculture with Africa's existing agricultural potential. Take cultivated land as an example. Although the per capita arable land area has dropped from 0.74 hectares in the early 1960s to 0.3 hectares at present due to the rapid population growth, it is still higher than the global per capita level of 0.29 hectares. Africa's heat resources also rank first in all continents, with 95% of the land in tropical and subtropical climate, and crops can grow all year round. The average total river flow in Africa is 4657 square kilometers, accounting for 12% of the total river flow in the world, ranking third in the world after Asia and South America. Coupled with lakes, swamps and groundwater, Africa does not lack irrigation water. Therefore, FAO predicts that by 2000, even if African agriculture does not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, does not take any long-term soil and water conservation measures and continues to grow traditional crops, it will still be able to feed 1.60% of the expected population; If we can use basic fertilizers and pesticides, take some long-term soil and water conservation measures and plant slightly improved new crop varieties, African agriculture can feed 580% of the expected population; If chemical fertilizers and pesticides are widely used, soil and water conservation is emphasized, and excellent varieties and hybrid varieties are planted, African agriculture can feed 1650% of the expected population.

Whether FAO's prediction is credible or not, there is no doubt that the African continent does contain great potential for developing agriculture. However, if this potential can't be brought into play, African agriculture can't get real development, and Africa's overall social and economic development also lacks a solid foundation.