United Nations Trust Fund for African Development: past and future

Abstract

Africa's persistent economic crisis is of a structural nature. It is characterized by the disintegration of the productive and infrastructural facilities. Agricultural output and particularly food production was substantially reduced in the 1980's.Most of Africa's industries have been affected by the crisis: Some have had to be closed down while most others have had to operate much below their installed capacities. The physical infrastructures built in the post-independence era, have suffered some amount of deterioration. Similarly, social services and welfare specially education, public health and sanitation,housing and potable water have also deteriorated.Unemployment is on the increase and so is poverty. The major concerns of these and other programs which spell out the key areas of intervention in the 1990s, are crystallized in a document on "Strategic Objectives of Africa's Socio-economic Development in the 1990s".