ABSTRACT
Most of Africa today is in a desperate situation. It is the only continent where standards of living have declined continuously for nearly a decade, and are still declining. The grave problem of generally declining development trends have in recent years been greatly compounded first by a devastating drought and famine and more recently by serious external debt and financial crises. Drastic measures by the African countries themselves and unparalleled help from the industrial nations are urgently needed to overcome the unfolding of a human drama of poverty, hunger, desperation, and political strife of a dimension that the world has not seen before.
