The global food and financial crises and the poor in Africa.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines how the poor in sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by the simultaneous food and financial crises. Subsequent sections of this chapter discuss the scope of the food and financial crises and some of their causes, followed by an examination of the transmission mechanisms of the crises on African economies, with illustrations from Ghana, Zambia and Nigeria. These illustrations provide useful information about the crises' impacts on mineral-dependent, non-oil producing African countries (Zambia), on mixed agriculture/mining-based African countries (Ghana), and on oil-producing African countries (Nigeria). Since the majority of African countries fall into at least one of these categories, the impacts of the crises on these 3 countries is likely to be a good representation of impacts elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Following these discussions, the chapter examines the impacts of the dual crises on the poor in the region and then analyse government responses to the crisis with a discussion of social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the last section summarizes key findings and conclusions.