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Wed, 2 Dec 09:11:14 GMT17

 
Angola's recovery: Health and education

Angola spends less than two percent of its GDP on health and less than five percent on education. According to the World Bank, these are some of the lowest percentages in Africa (the continent average is six percent and 10 percent respectively).

Health:

Angola has some of the worst health statistics in the world:

  • Life expectancy is 40.2 years (United Nations Development Programme 2002)

  • A quarter of children die before the age
    of five (U.N. Children's Fund)

  • The most deadly diseases are: malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory diseases, measles, recurrent cholera epidemics and sleeping sickness

  • In 2004 and 2005 Angola experienced the worst outbreak of the rare Marburg virus, which killed 329 people, most of them in Uige Province (World Health Organisation)

  • At least 45 percent of children are severely malnourished (World Food Programme)

  • In the central highlands 52 percent of children under five have been permanently stunted through lack of food (WFP)

  • 70 percent of doctors are concentrated in the capital. Nurses and primary health care workers are in acute shortage. (WHO)

  • A joint WFP/Food and Agriculture Organisation mission in 2004 found that about 80 percent of the population has no access to essential drugs

    • Education:

  • Literacy rate: 42 percent of the population over 15 years (WFP)

  • 42 percent of Angola's children are out of school (UNICEF)

    • Useful links:

  • United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Angola page
  • World Food Programme's detailed report on food security and livelihoods in Angola's central highlands (June 2005)
  • World Health Organisation's Angola page






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