Western Africa – Currency Management

Tags

currency, exchange rate, inflation, Western Africa

some pretty brutal inflation rates

Advertisements

Western Africa – Government Money Management

Tags

External Debt, Foreign Reserves, Western Africa

Government Spending in Western Africa

Tags

government budget, government expenses, government revenues, Western Africa

Generally, Western African governments earn revenue from taxes, mining concessions and fishing rights. The percentages belong reflect the deficit (expenses being larger than revenues) as a percentage of revenues. Sao Tome and Principe has a balanced budget and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mauritania came close.

AIDS in Western Africa

Tags

AIDS, Western Africa

If the figures are more or less correct, it is not clear how Equatorial Guinea escapes gradually increasing percentages of adults with AIDS as well as debilitating economic damage. The situations in Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo should be viewed with grave concern – once the prevalence of AIDS among adults passes six percent (6%) it is difficult to foresee how a country recovers.

Doctors working in Western Africa

Tags

doctors, physicians, Western Africa

Given the ongoing prevalence of malaria, AIDS, and Lassa fever and likelihood of Ebola outbreaks one would want to see a ratio of 250 to 300 patients per doctor.

Malaria in Western Africa

Tags

malaria, Western Africa

Malaria is complicated. There are multiple types each of which can be transmitted by more than one species of mosquito. If you are not young, old, already sick or pregnant, the odds are excellent malaria will not kill you. That’s the good news. The bad news is you will be weakened; you will likely need to take an anti-malarial drug and you are a reservoir for mosquitoes so that they can bite you and then bite someone else. The malaria – tested numbers are supposed to be fairly accurate and consist of samples analyzed at labs. These numbers are greatly influenced by how many inhabitants choose to be tested as well as how many samples the labs can process. No one (yet) tallies how many people have malaria and something else like Lassa fever, yellow fever or dengue. The malaria-total numbers are supposed to be a sampling of people who have not been tested and a statistical worst case estimate of how the entire national population is doing. Sometimes these samples are done by city or province. A rough rule of thumb is the best case is about one-third (33%) of the worst case.

Along the Gulf of Guinea

Tags

Guinea, Gulf of Guinea, Western Africa

West of central Africa, water from the Gulf of Guinea washes the shores of at least 16 nations. One of those nations is Guinea itself (its name is inside a purple box about midway down on the left).