Sub-Saharan Africa

Main article: Africa

Satellite image of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area

Linguistically, Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by the Niger-Congo phylum (distribution shown in yellow), with pockets of Khoi-San in Southern Africa, and Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic areals in East Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara

Those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara,^[1]^[2] account for over 80% of the population of Africa. The term is most used in discussion of contemporary international politics and economic development, while the term Black Africa is most used in discussion of art, culture, and history.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Demography
4 Economies
5 Health care
6 List of countries
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Geography

Sub-Saharan Africa covers an area of 24.3 million square kilometers.[3] Since around 5,400 years ago ^[3], the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions of Africa have been separated by the extremely harsh climate of the sparsely populated Sahara, forming an effective barrier interrupted by only the Nile River in Sudan, though the Nile was blocked by the river's cataracts. The modern term sub-Saharan corresponds with the south of the Sahara desert. Tropical Africa and Equatorial Africa are sometimes used as alternative labels, due to the distinctive ecology of the region.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has been the site of many empires and kingdoms, including Nubia, Axum, the Nok culture, Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, Songhai Empire, Kanem Empire, Bornu Empire, Benin Empire, Great Zimbabwe, and the Zulu Kingdom.

[edit] Demography

The population of sub-Saharan Africa was 770.3 million in 2006. ^[4] The current growth rate is 2.3%. The UN predict for the region a population of nearly 1.5 billion in 2050.^[5]

Sub-Saharan African countries top the list of countries and territories by fertility rate with 40 of the highest 50, all with TFR greater than 4 in 2008. All are above the world average except South Africa.

[edit] Economies

Generally, sub-Saharan Africa is the poorest region in the world, suffering from the effects of colonialism, economic mismanagement, local corruption. and inter-ethnic conflict. The region contains many of the least developed countries in the world. (See Economy of Africa.)

The sub-Saharan African countries form the bulk of the ACP countries.

[edit] Health care

In 1987, Bamako was the location of a WHO conference known as the Bamako Initiative that helped reshape the health policy of sub-Saharan Africa.^[6] The new strategy dramatically increased accessibility through community-based healthcare reform, resulting in more efficient and equitable provision of services. A comprehensive approach strategy was extended to all areas of health care, with subsequent improvement in the health care indicators and improvement in health care efficiency and cost.^[7]^[8]

Up to and including October 2006 many governments face difficulties in implementing policies aimed at mitigating the effects of the AIDS-pandemic due to lack of technical support despite a number of mitigating measures.^[9]