Healthcare, education, and transportation play a pivotal role in economic development. These social factors are often lacking in rural communities, limiting economic growth. In this article, we'll uncover the social infrastructure challenges that these communities face and how their development can be encouraged.
Health Is Wealth
When it comes to the health sector in rural areas, it is important that the challenges are dealt with immediately. One can even argue that it is the sector in need of more attention than others, even though that would be unfair. It is no secret that rural area residents struggle to gain access to basic health, let alone life-saving operations, so investments surrounding creating better healthcare facilities must come to fruition. There is also a need to bring more basic healthcare to rural areas. This can be achieved through mobile clinics and health drives that will provide healthcare for residents in the comfort of their own homes.
Tech Education
Education sector in rural areas is a tough topic as many children struggle with gaining access to basic education. There is little to no infrastructure to accommodate education facilities in Africa, yet the resilience from educators has been something to applaud. We need to build better schools that will offer African children access to greater basic education and introduce them to the tech world that they are so inspired to know about. There are many women in the tech industry that are working towards educating young girls on coding, IT, data analytics and more, and this change has been significant in different countries’ economies. This evolution is securing a bright and promising future for young people in Africa.
Transportation Transformation
The ripple effect of industries is often a fascinating sight as it showcases how fixing one sector can benefit the other. Rural areas in many African countries struggle with road and transportation works oftentimes. This can be curbed with green transportation projects that do not negatively impact the environment, as well as changing infrastructure in order to give people access to the things that don’t require them to take long trips. A low carbon energy supply will help in curbing the costs of energy supplies in many rural areas, and this will be beneficial as many people are unemployed in these regions.
Every Challenge Is an Opportunity
The biggest takeaway from Africa’s social challenges is that they offer opportunities for job creation, entrepreneurship, health and safety management, political involvement, and so much more for the residents of the areas that need them. Once we start initiatives designed to develop rural areas, it is important to involve the community members to better the local economy.
Open Leadership Roles
Another way we can ensure we are ready to face the challenges Africa is yet to discover is by opening leadership roles to more women and young people. A fresh perspective, a relatable leader, and a supportive community can help create the change that rural areas are seeking.
DBSA’s Role
As one of Africa’s leading development finance institutions, it is our responsibility to promote inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development and growth. To achieve this, we mobilise funding for infrastructure development that fuels transformation across sub-Saharan Africa. With this, we aim to deliver socio-economic growth that is shared and equitable for African countries and their citizens.
Therefore, we engage and partner with various stakeholders who are keen on actively building Africa’s prosperity. Together, we establish programmes through which the development of infrastructure is possible. We manage third-party funds and develop strategies to help align the needs of recipients.
Final Words
Africa is a hungry continent that is also rich in culture, resources, and talent. It is refreshing to see African countries stepping into their elements and creating better living ways for all. While the development of many countries will take a while to fully come to fruition, the current work in governance, IT, medical sector, education, transportation and more is proof that we are well on our way to a better future that we will all enjoy and benefit from.