HTH Initiatives are designed to address the root cause of poor health: poverty
The Community-Directed HIV Initiative operates in the West African nation of Togo, one of the world’s poorest countries.
- Togo has a gross national income of $270 USD per capita, according to World Bank figures.
- 58% of Togo’s population lives in extreme poverty, measured as less than $1 US per day.
- Decades of political and economic turbulence, including coup attempts and a two-year national strike, have created lasting political and economic turbulence in Togo.
- The withdrawal of international donors, including the European Community and USAID, has brought about a halt to all external development aid.
- Togo experienced a fifty percent devaluation of the local currency in 1993.
- Togo was ranked 147 out of 177 countries on the 2006 UNDP Human Development Index.
With a gross national income per capita 55% below the average for Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty is a contributing factor to Togo having the fourth highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in West Africa.
