Guinea-Bissau

THE LOW-INCOME, severely indebted, sub-Saharan nation of Guinea-Bissau is ranked as one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. Just under half of the population lives below the national poverty line. At least 26.2 percent live in extreme poverty, and 22.5 percent are considered moderately poor. Poverty is more prevalent in rural areas, with 84 percent of the poor living in the three poorest regions.

Education is crucial to breaking the Guinean poverty barrier given the fact that 84 percent of those who are poor have no formal education. Some 44 percent of Guineans have no sustainable access to improved water and sanitation sources. A severe lack of adequate healthcare continues to create an environment in which diseases flourish. There are only 17 physicians for every 100,000 Guineans, and half of the population lacks access to lifesaving drugs.

Guineans suffer greatly from an extensively unequal distribution of income. The poorest 20 percent of the population share 5.2 percent of all income while the richest 20 percent share 53.4 percent. The country ranks 47.0 on the Gini Index of Human Inequality.

Decades of civil war have strained Guinea-Bissau's economy to the limit. Although the country has not completely recovered from the damage to its infrastructure, the economic outlook has improved to some extent [Page 451]since 1999. Some 82 percent of Guinea-Bissau's labor force are involved in agriculture and fishing. Ranking sixth in the world in the production of cashews, the country also exports fish and seafood, peanuts, palm kernels, and timber. Although undeveloped, Guinea-Bissau has the potential to profit in the future from its offshore oil reserves. In 2004 the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank granted Guinea-Bissau $107 million in emergency budgetary support. Current levels of foreign aid are not enough, however, to end the country's abject poverty.

Like most African nations, Guinea-Bissau's population is young, with a median age of 18.97 and a life expectancy of 46.97 years. Between 1980 and 2005, male life expectancy increased from 37 to 45.09 years, while female life expectancy rose from 40 to 48.92 years. Some 41.5 percent of the population are under the age of 14, and only three percent are over the age of 65. Guineans have a 41.3 percent of not living to see their 40th birthdays.

The 10 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate for Guinea-Bissau is extremely high, even by African standards. Some 17,000 Guineans live with the disease, which has caused at least 1,200 deaths. The people of Guinea-Bissau are stricken with many of the same infectious diseases that plague other poor African countries. Risks of contracting food- and waterborne diseases such as bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever are very high. Guineans are also vulnerable to infectious diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, schistosomiasis, and meningococcal meningitis.

Poverty affects Guinean children disproportionately. While infant mortality rates have begun to drop, they remain high. Between 1990 and 2000, rates decreased from 153 to 130 deaths per 1,000 live births, followed by a decline to 107.17 in 2005. The mortality for children under the age of 5 likewise decreased. Between 1990 and 2003, that rate declined from 253 to 204 per 1,000 live births.

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