How Poverty in Zimbabwe Has Changed over Time?
Compare the internal and external causes of poverty in a given country
Poverty can be understood as the inability to meet a variety of basic needs and entitlements, through a lack of income, access to resources or empowerment. Poverty at a national scale is complex and is caused by an array of factors including many generated within the country but also others that are caused by external factors (figure 1).
I will examine the internal and external causes of poverty in the landlocked Southern Africa state of Zimbabwe (figure 3). In the last century Zimbabwe has experienced massive economic and social change. Once Africa’s 2nd biggest economy, it is now ranked 15th(figure 3). Overall Zimbabwe ranks 173rd in the world in terms of HDI (Human Development Index), 153rd in the world for GDP and ranked 5th in the world for the lowest life expectancy[1], indicating significant poverty especially when compared to the relative developmental success of other southern Africa states (figure 5).
When considering levels of development, countries can be placed on Rostow Stages of Economic Development[2], the majority of countries move up the stages from experiencing economic growth. However Zimbabwe has slipped back down the Stages of Development; early 1970 it was experiencing ‘take off’ & ‘acceleration’ however in recent years it is now at ‘pre-development’ (see figure 4), a ‘step back’ in economic growth development.
Figure 5 – Southern Africa development indicators[3]
|Country |HDI |GDP (billion) |Life Expectancy |HIV Prevalence (%) |
|Zimbabwe |0.376 |7.78 |52 |23.2 |
|South Africa |0.67 |363.7 |50 |18.8
Poverty can be understood as the inability to meet a variety of basic needs and entitlements, through a lack of income, access to resources or empowerment. Poverty at a national scale is complex and is caused by an array of factors including many generated within the country but also others that are caused by external factors (figure 1).
I will examine the internal and external causes of poverty in the landlocked Southern Africa state of Zimbabwe (figure 3). In the last century Zimbabwe has experienced massive economic and social change. Once Africa’s 2nd biggest economy, it is now ranked 15th(figure 3). Overall Zimbabwe ranks 173rd in the world in terms of HDI (Human Development Index), 153rd in the world for GDP and ranked 5th in the world for the lowest life expectancy[1], indicating significant poverty especially when compared to the relative developmental success of other southern Africa states (figure 5).
When considering levels of development, countries can be placed on Rostow Stages of Economic Development[2], the majority of countries move up the stages from experiencing economic growth. However Zimbabwe has slipped back down the Stages of Development; early 1970 it was experiencing ‘take off’ & ‘acceleration’ however in recent years it is now at ‘pre-development’ (see figure 4), a ‘step back’ in economic growth development.
Figure 5 – Southern Africa development indicators[3]
|Country |HDI |GDP (billion) |Life Expectancy |HIV Prevalence (%) |
|Zimbabwe |0.376 |7.78 |52 |23.2 |
|South Africa |0.67 |363.7 |50 |18.8