The greatest assets available on earth are good people; in the same vein, the majority of problems any nation will face will be as a result of people.
I sat down and gave a thorough thought to nations entrenched in myriad problems, vices like corruption, inconsistencies in policy-making, lack of vision, improper planning, and lack of value for human life. 
Some might argue, what has the above-listed got to do with problem-solving? It has everything to do with it because a nation is not defined by its geographic location, but by the people who reside within its borders. Failures on the national scale is evidence of failure at the individual level. Majority of the populace look up and criticize authority, forgetting that the people in power grew up with the same mindset, in the same environment they did.
Effecting a change first and foremost begins with an individual realizing the implications of the above-stated vices and how his/her decisions impart on the nation at large. What you do in your own small way presently should be viewed with a broader perspective. Interestingly, you will discover that if you have opportunity to lead on a larger scale, your case may be worse than the people you are presently criticizing unless you make deliberate efforts to imbibe sound moral values and execute good judgment.
When we were kids, we imbibed some values through association- environment, and primarily, our immediate family. If as a child you imbibed the wrong set of values, you will most likely go into your areas of influence exhibiting the same values. This implies that whatever pattern you observe in a nation, it is a pure display of the collection of the values of the people in that nation.