There are numerous third world countries that are in a state of destitute due to the high levels of poverty and health care. One such country is the Democratic Republic of Congo one of the various countries in poverty stricken nations in Africa. Despite the high levels of natural resources such as diamonds, copper, and cobalt, the country continues to experience high levels of poverty and little development has taken place. The impact of such an occurrence easily spreads to other areas of the society including health care and human capital. The lack of adequate employment opportunities in the society, the members are depicted to experience a high level of mortality due to the onset of communicable diseases among others that easily be treated. The human capital is significantly lower than expected due to high levels of death and sickness in the region along with the issue low levels of skilled labor. The following paper identifies the various practices by lending institutions in an effort to eradicate poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its impact on health care and human capital.
Lending Institutions
The African country of DRC is one of the poorest nations in the world. One of the major factors that has led to the occurrence of poverty is the Civil Wars that were experienced during in 1996 onwards. It was almost inevitable that the country would experience such a difficult time as the country was in a high level of political unrest since its independence in the 1960s from Belgium. The International Monetary Fund is one of the lending institutions that has supported numerous efforts in the modern society (Titeca, & De Herdt, 2011). During the fighting taking place in the 1990s, the IMF had withdrawn its support for different political concerns. The international organization believed that lack of appropriate governance in the country may result in the redirection of the important funds to areas such as personal development of the leaders who are responsible for the funds. The state would be required to restore peace in the county and begin efforts into the formation of an effective government.
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The IMF along with another lending institution, World Bank have been involved in the provision of funds of improving the country and setting up an effective government that would best serve the people. The impact of the IMF has been an important factor towards the improvement in social needs of the people. According to the recent reports, the funding provided to the country could help alleviate the state of destitution in the region (Soeters, Peerenboom, Mushagalusa, & Kimanuka, 2011). The IMF has to receive significant performances records of the African government particularly in its use and implementation of the funds that have been broken. Furthermore, the World Bank has been providing funds for the status it wishes to achieve. its plans. Approximately $3.1 billion is provided by the World Bank for use in the development of infrastructure, healthcare, and education among other societal issues. Nevertheless, the country has a long way to go in terms if eradicating poverty in the community level (Titeca, & De Herdt, 2011). High levels of corruption among the leaders and law enforcement has created a negative a major issue for the community members.
Health Care
Healthcare is one of the most important aspects of a nation. It is evident that a healthy nation is one where the workers in society are able to participate in their different trades without getting sick. Reduced absenteeism from their workplaces ensures an increase in the domestic productivity of the country. This is one of the major benefits to the country. According to reports from the World Bank, majority of the citizens in the country reside in the rural areas. Unfortunately, these are the places in the community that lacks appropriate access to healthcare treatment (Aquino, & Guay, 2013). One of the ways in which the country can benefit from a health population is through reduced expenditure. The DRC government can reduce its expenses on medication for the preventable diseases such as Malaria in the case of this country. The additional funds can be put to alternative use such as increasing job opportunities for the citizens (Aquino, & Guay, 2013).
Another means by which the society benefits from a healthy population is through the participation in research and development. A community where members are of a healthy mind and body can participate in research and development. This healthy state is directly associated with an increase in intelligence quotient for the overall society. Nearly a quarter of the country’s population is suffering from malaria showing a lack of a healthy population (Arieff, 2014). The government should explore more options for treatment and prevention of such diseases. The DRC government will benefit from the healthy population if there is an increased life expectancy. According to the OECD, increase in life expectancy at birth has a significant influence on the economy providing an improvement from 0.3% to 0.4% (Arieff, 2014). Approximately 150 children from every 1000 die by 5 years of age. This is to show that the government has yet to develop significant measures of curbing the issue of healthcare. The high cases of corruption and mismanagement of funds is an issue of concern for this country (Arieff, 2014).
Human Capital
This terminology as coined by Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer identifies the extent of knowledge, behavioral habits, individual and social traits among the community members of a working age that can contribute to creativity and performance of labor. The main aim of human capital is to turn creativity and behavioral attributes into a product that could generate economic value (Bloom, & Canning, 2008). The country’s economic decline was associated with high levels of political unrest and conflict. However, the community has been able to advance economic growth in DRC to 8.9% in 2014. It is important to note that this is largely caused by the significant involvement of the lending institutions that are extensively involved in the development of healthcare and peaceful relations (Bloom, & Canning, 2008). It is evident that the civil conflicts in DRC that lasted for over a decade affected the education system where the number of people who had access to education.
One of the largest exports available to DRC is the raw minerals where approximately 50 percent are sold to China. The government has also undertaken numerous efforts of increasing the amount of produce in agricultural sector. The use of innovative at the industrial parks is an important step in the right direction (Bloom, & Canning, 2008). Nevertheless, the country has a major issue in terms of employment. Nearly 49.1% of the total 67 million population is unemployed. It is worse off as majority of these individuals do not have the appropriate skills to undertake various job opportunities (Urban, & Kongo, 2015). The occurrence of unemployment is significantly higher than the 14% which reflects on the world average. One of the major factors affecting the human capital in DR Congo is the human development. There is little done in the area to reduce cases of conflict or increase the life expectancy in the country. Out of 186 countries the DR Congo ranks as 176th having risen over 11 spots between 2014 and 2016 (Urban, & Kongo, 2015).
Conclusion
The above research describes clearly the state of the Democratic Republic of Congo. With over 67 million citizens, the national government has a huge task of eradicating generational poverty in the society. The lending institutions can only do so much to provide assistance to the country. For instance, the 19,000 troops sent for peacekeeping mission in the country is the highest and most expensive mission carried out by the UN. The civil conflicts based on political support has been a major factor towards deteriorating human development index and the rising of the militia groups poses a major threat to the developments made. The events have also led to significant depletion of healthcare and infrastructure. Many of the people have to travel long distance to get access to appropriate health centers.
References
Titeca, K., & De Herdt, T. (2011). Real governance beyond the ‘failed state’: negotiating education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. African Affairs , adr005.
Soeters, R., Peerenboom, P. B., Mushagalusa, P., & Kimanuka, C. (2011). Performance-based financing experiment improved health care in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Health Affairs , 30(8), 1518-1527.
Aquino, A., & Guay, B. (2013). Implementing REDD+ in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An analysis of the emerging national REDD+ governance structure. Forest Policy and Economics , 36, 71-79.
Arieff, A. (2014). Democratic Republic of Congo: Background and US Policy. Current Politics and Economics of Africa , 7(2): 113-138.
Bloom, D. E. & Canning, D. (2008) Population Health and Economic Growth . World Bank, Retrieved from https://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPREMNET/Resources/489960-1338997241035/Growth_Commission_Working_Paper_24_Population_Health_Economic_Growth.pdf
Urban, B., & Kongo, M. (2015). The relevance of human capital to firm performance: A focus on the retail industry in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Acta Commercii , 15(1), 1-9.
