Africa's Challenges

80% of the poor in Africa are small-scale farmers. Due to poor agricultural opportunities, the rural sectors of sub-Saharan African nations are hotbeds of extreme poverty. Relying on the rain, farmers get only 1-2 harvests per year. The rest of the year, many farming families go hungry and fall back into poverty.

The highest rates of child mortality are still in sub-Saharan Africa—where 1 in 9 children dies before age five. 165 million children under 5 are stunted in their growth due to poor nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life.

Africa is a continent made up of small-scale farmers that cannot even feed themselves despite the fact that the majority of the population works in agriculture and the continent holds more than a quarter of the world’s arable land. This challenge contributes to rampant poverty, malnutrition in children and adults, and unfortunate, yet avoidable, health and education outcomes. With the population expected to double by 2050, the problem is only going to get worse unless we act now.