Reply #7: You're talking about Phase III of the Demographic Transition Model

[GliderGuider]

Unfortunately, developing a continent that already has a billion people to the level you envisage requires too many resources and too much time. I did an analysis (published here) that used energy consumption as a proxy for the industrial development assumed by the DTM. I figured out that it would take five times the world's energy to industrialize the poor half of the world enough to stabilize their population. Put in terms of Africa alone, we would need to double the world's energy production and somehow reserve all that additional supply for Africa's use.

The resources required go far beyond energy, though. Development also requires water, infrastructure and capital - all of which are in desperately short supply on the Darkening Continent.

So, they won't be able to develop themselves into stability, even with our help, and certainly not within the next 20 years. As far as I can tell, that leaves condoms or tragedy as their only options.