Nowhere is the need for poverty reduction
greater than in sub-Saharan Africa—a major
part of the African continent that consists of 48
countries, spreads over 9.4 million square miles,
and includes more than 700 million people.42
According to the UN Human Development
Index, which measures human development or
basic living standards on a scale from 0 to 1,
with 0 being the lowest and 1 being the highest
score, SSA’s score was 0.468 in 2003. It was