EN - FR - Yükselen Afrika ve Türkiye / Rising Africa and Turkey 3

The Role and Effeciency of Foreign Aid in Africa’s Development 207world oil prices. Africa is heavily reliant on export of primary products of agricultureand minerals. African economies that are mainly oil importers wereaffected as a result of the rising global oil prices, the demand for servicesmarkedly increased partly due expansion of education and health to reach largerpopulation mainly in rural areas and to meet the raised expectations. This inturn created alarming budget deficits as most countries still depended on thepublic sector in the provision of basic services of health, education, agriculturalextension, water and sanitation etc.Debt service has been a major problem for many African countries andAfrican indebtedness nearly tripled between 1980 and 1995. The continentstotal debt burden amounts to $300 billion. Debt relief under the HeavilyIndebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative was US$1.4 billion in 2001. At thesame time, trade-distorting policies have prevented the creation of incomes farin excess of these amounts. Of the15 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC),13 are in Africa. Assessment of trends in income poverty has shown massivereversals and stagnation in Sub-Saharan Africa with almost 100 million morepeople living on less than US$1a day in 2001 than in 1990. See the tablebelow on tracking changes and reflecting developing countries progress inselected regions since1990.