Correlation between political instability and the rise of poverty in Africa

Abstract: This paper is a critical appraisal of the political economy for Africa’s development that has been marred by a number of challenges. The paper argues that, Africa’s indebtedness is the root cause of poverty that is related to maladministration and corruption. In the1970’s, a number of African countries were challenged by the falling prices of their commodities and this was exacerbated by the weakening of the terms of trade. This situation pushed African governments to start thinking of borrowing funds from international organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as other private lenders in order to support their budget deficits. The argument is, were these funds adequately used to serve the purpose that was to finance budget deficit and undertake development projects? However it is strongly argued that, the political instability in African countries is the result of lack of good democratic governance to manage public affairs. This paper tries to demonstrate the correlation between political Instability and the rise of poverty in Africa as the root cause of African challenges