According to the World Bank, the International Poverty Line refers to those who have less than 1.25 US dollars a day to live, and thus live on the very edge of existence. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) sets various indicators in its Human Development Index (HDI) to measure poverty in Africa and all other countries in the world. This includes:
life expectancy at birth
average school attendance period
expected school attendance period as well
per capita income
As the indicators show, education is closely linked to poverty by the United Nations - because those who can not read and write have little chance of getting a skilled job and build their livelihood.
In the annual report on human development published by the United Nations (UN), the African countries of Malawi, Liberia, Burundi, Eritrea, Chad, Sierra Leone and Niger are regularly in last place - this has not changed until 2014.
Extreme poverty leads to hunger in Africa: More than a quarter of the hungry in the world live on the African continent. One fifth of people living in Africa are considered malnourished. This gives the continent the highest rate of malnourished people worldwide.
