system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is it so hard for many (most?) african countries to get out of poverty?

We see almost everyday commercials for charities that go to african countries (or India) and we do big events where we scrape together hundreds of millions that go to these countries (I live in sweden, I don't know how things work in other countries or if you have these big TV charity events), yet I never see the countries rise from poverty or that things get better.

So is that statement even true from me? Are they progressing out of poverty? And if they are not, what are the causes?
gpt
There are a number of problems which make it difficult for African nations to break the spiral of poverty. 

They pay more money to service loans. The lower the credit rating of a nation means higher the risk to invest in that country and the higher the return on the bond for the investor. Therefore they have to promise higher returns (which may not be feasible) to draw any investment and repay higher amounts within the due time or risk defaulting on bonds and loans, lowering their credit rating and resuming the debt spiral. 

Added to this is that many of the natural resources to draw an income cannot be developed as they lack the infrastructure thus, in order to attract investment, they offer lucrative investment offers to nations such as China in the way of cheap royalties to extract the resources which limits their income

Given that the nation-state is as natural in Africa as tribes and clans in Sweden (ie. not very), often the structures and expectations put in place by organisations such as the WTO, World Bank, UN and first world nations may not be entirely realistic. This makes corruption somewhat endemic in these nations as those in power tend to preference tribal connections over benefits for the wider citizenry. If you are a European or Chinese investor into these nations, there is little reason to change the status quo as dealing with corrupt officials or individual tribes is far cheaper. 

Poor health and education means that the population often struggles to break out of subsistence farming and saps the population of able workers through disease, many of which are preventable. 

Aid is important in breaking this process and in many nations in Africa, there have been a number of improvements partly responsible through the UN Millennium Development Goals, however there is still a far way to go. These nations are unstable and often years of hard work can be ruined by civil war or unrest which is usually triggered by the poverty cycle. 

There is progress, India is a good example. Mozambique in Africa is another, especially when compared to 1990 data.