Healthcare

Some of the issues affecting healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa include lack of infrastructure, poor management of healthcare facilities, lack of essential equipment, shortages of drugs, affordability, accessibility and unqualified staffs.

Africa’s slow development has led to poor infrastructure, few hospitals and healthcare centers, which translates to high patient burden at hospitals that are supposed to be only referral hospitals. In most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, patients walk dozens of kilometers searching for healthcare services. In addition to lack of equipped hospitals, there are also concerns over lack of capacity at healthcare centers to deal with smaller and sensitive issues like maternity. Lack of such basic infrastructure and facilities lead to poor service delivery, leading to preponderance in communicable diseases, and other preventable diseases, like cholera, dysentery and malaria.

Education

Although Africa has made significant progress towards the achievement of Education for All and Millennium Development Goals, many challenges continue to face the continent.

Access to early childhood education, primary and post primary education, including vocational education and training, remains a key challenge for the continent. For example, of the 61 million children of primary school going age who are still out of school, 31 million of them (more than 50%) are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these are girls and children from poor and remote rural areas and those affected by conflict and discrimination. Continuing use of child labour has exacerbated the problem and denied children their basic right to learn.

Educational quality remains a serious challenge in Africa.  Many countries continue to experience shortages of basic facilities, infrastructure, equipment and teaching and learning materials. For example, children continue to learn under trees, exposed to harsh weather conditions and to struggle to learn without sufficient textbooks and reading materials. The unavailability of electricity, clean water and sanitation facilities, including toilets for both girls and boys remains a challenge, particularly in rural schools.  For example, UIS reports that at least 60% of schools have no toilets in Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar and Niger.