This entrepreneur owns a telecentre in Tanzania and is among the small business owners in the unique position to create change for Africa's poor. Photo: IICD (flickr)

They own apartments instead of huts. They exploit technology to organize revolutions. They are Africa’s new middle class — and they are still living on less than $20 a day.

One in three Africans are earning between $2 and $20 a day and considered middle class. According to the Guardian, it is exactly this growing, educated population that is becoming the catalyst for change throughout the developing world.

According to a World Bank study cited by the Guardian, "countries with lower poverty will have a large middle class and see higher subsequent rates of both growth and poverty reduction." The reasons for this are both social and economic, but the growth of Africa's middle class seems to bode well for the continent.

Because the developing world's middle class still lives on less than $20 a day, it shares many of the grievances of those living below the poverty line, explains the Guardian. However, members of this income bracket pay more in taxes and thus are more likely to seek transparency and accountability from those in power. Since members of this narrowly defined middle class are generally business owners rather than government employees, they are unlikely to reap benefits from a corrupt system. Given these circumstances, they are often the ones most effective in lobbying for improved living conditions.

In developing countries, this mid-level income group is also particularly important in the small business sector. They have higher disposable income to invest in domestic economies and in education to produce a skilled workforce. As small business owners and entrepreneurs, they may also have the hiring power to employ new workers in difficult economic times.

Freeing Africa from poverty and corruption will take all these changes and more. But with one in three Africans qualifying as middle class, the continent may be on the right track.

Cynthia Changyit Levin's comment about how the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire has sparked conversation and shined a light on poverty in India caught our eye. That's why Cynthia is this week's winner of the comment of the week contest. Her comment:

No matter what people may think about how poverty was portrayed in Slumdog Millionaire, it has definitely sparked a discussion. I have seen poverty-focused editorials, op-eds, and news articles inspired by this film printed in local papers, Newsweek and even the current Entertainment Weekly. But my favorite place to hear it discussed was at a party attended by upper middle class suburban moms. When I heard a woman say "I had no idea that level of poverty existed in India or anywhere!" I was satisfied to think that the film had broken through to her so that she would open the dialogue about global poverty in as unlikely a place as a birthday celebration.

It's great to hear that the film is making an impact among people that weren't previously aware of issues of extreme poverty. Thanks for the great comment!

Brazil is experiencing an economic boom. Photo: adam79 (flickr)

While much of the world fights off fears of recession and economic stagnation, Brazil is having an economic boom. Its steady growth rate has boosted production and has made Brazil a major player in world trade.

Brazil owes much of its new fortunes to its two burgeoning industries of oil and ethanol. Oil was recently discovered off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, which is estimated to hold between 5 to 8 billion barrels. With this discovery, foreign investment has been flooding into the country as companies try to develop this profitable resource.

Brazil is also experiencing windfall profits in agriculture, specifically ethanol. In recent months, ethanol has been gaining in popularity as an alternative fuel because of the rising cost of oil. Brazil, as the world’s largest exporter of ethanol, has greatly benefited from this rapid increase in demand.

Brazil has always been known as a country with a wide gap between the very rich and very poor. In 2004, the bottom 10 percent of the population received only 0.9 percent of the national income while the top 10 percent received 44.8 percent, according to UNDP figures. A surprising and encouraging result of this economic boom is that the gap is finally growing smaller. From 2001, Brazil's income inequality gap has shrunk 6 percentage points as more people moved up into the growing middle class. As well, the bottom 10 percent of Brazil’s population had a 58-percent increase in their incomes.

The government has played a major role in creating this upward social mobility in Brazil. They have used Brazil’s growing wealth to increase funding for many social programs for the poor. One very popular program is the Bolsa Familia program that gives small subsidies to help the poor buy food and other necessities. Millions of people have used this program to help lift themselves out of poverty and destitution. Once they are on a stable financial footing, many Brazilians have then applied for a microloan to start some type of business so that they can have a good income in Brazil's expanding formal economy.

These programs have been very successful in improving Brazil’s entire society. From 2004-2006 the number of people under the poverty line — earning less than $80 a month — decreased by 32 percent.

These statistics, at least, suggest that more and more Brazilians are able to climb out of poverty.