Angola S Poverty and Its Incidence of Malaria Cases

Poverty and Malaria in Angola

Angola is a country on the southern West coast of Africa. Its capital city is Luanda and it recognizes half a dozen national languages (though its native language is Portuguese). It achieved independence from Portugal in 1975 and consists of over 1 million square kilometers. Its population according to the 2014 census was 24,383,301 people. Angola has rich natural resources, from diamonds to oil and wildlife. Today it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and the fastest in Africa (Angola Financial Sector Profile, 2015).

The indicator I selected is "reported malaria cases" and it is defined as the "total number of reported malaria cases during the given year" (Data in Gapminder World, 2016). The trend of reported cases shows a sudden spark from 2002 to 2003 (from 1.86 million reported cases in 2002 to 3.24 million reported cases the following year) with a gradual abatement from 2003 onward. The reason for this sudden spike can be attributed to the end of the Angolan civil war and the UN noted that in 2003 80% of people in Angola had no access to medical care, 60% had no water, and life expectancy was below 40 (Polgreen, 2003).

However, with the end of Angolan civil war, foreign aid has begun to come into the country and the ability to take care of people is now more possible than ever before, as Angola is viewed as a major developing country whose GDP is $130 billion per year. Meanwhile, its GNI is $6,540 per capita, according to the World Bank (GNI per capita, 2015). No doubt, the country's stability in the wake of the end of fighting appeals to foreign powers who feel more secure investing in the country and building up its infrastructure (at the same time it doubtlessly works to exploit Angola's natural resources for its own gain).

Thus, one can see how the rate of incidence of malaria is related to the country's devastation with regard to the terrible wars that waged for years while Angola struggled with its independence. The poverty level was very low as the civil war came to a close and GNI was merely a third of what it is today in 2003. This shows that the level of income per household has risen sharply since the end of fighting and the investments foreign nations, which have helped to rebuild the nation's infrastructure and provide health care to people who had been displaced.

Now that the nation is growing quickly and reducing its poverty levels, the incidence of malaria is lessening and more and more people are being treated according to the World Health Organization (WHO: Angola Malaria Publication, 2015). However, with most of the banks in Angola being foreign owned (Angola Financial Sector Profile, 2015) there is still the problem of outsiders getting wealthier while the native Angolans remain relatively impoverished (in spite of the GNI increases over the years, the number remains considerably low at 91st in the world.