Africa presents a development challenge that was not created by Africans, but rather has its root in colonialism and the subsequent application of neoliberal ideals of Western style living and economics. Stein, in his “Rethinking African Development”, makes a number of points about the source but also the consequences of economic deterioration and the crisis for this presents for the population.
The numbers Stein presents are chilling. Foreign direct investment is in fact decreasing, even though it was hardly noticeable in the first place; the investments and capital flows in which are made are often related to the petroleum sector. Because there is almost no manufacturing sector, exports are a large part of life in Africa. Stein sees this as resulting from IMF and World Bank policies which did not favor industrialization. Further, the terms of trade are getting worse for Sub-Saharan African countries. The raw products that are produced in Africa are less in demand as synthetic substitutes like artificial vanilla are cheaper. Frankly, the numbers with regard to economic development are the worst in the world. The net impact of worse trade conditions, lowered demand and decreased investment is debt for the nation and a lack of growth and rise in standard of living for the people and households. Africa is not growing and participating in the new technologies and advances which are driving economies, and it is only getting worse.
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The conditions do not exist for improvement, meaning those of us in the world with the least, that being Sub-Saharan Africa should plan to have even less. Food production, GDP, per capita income and every possible measurement reinforces the crisis that is the deterioration of the economy. Far more than poverty reduction is needed where agriculture is decreasing at the same time that food insecurity is increasing and the population is growing. Africa’s capacity to take care of itself is threatened by this. By contrast, Asia is thriving; year after year the gross domestic product and quality of life increases.
Colonialism has shaped the states, and in the past five decades it has also shaped their economies. When it is remembered that it was European companies who benefited from wide scale mining of Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, then it is less of a surprise that the financing was not available for African nations to invest in themselves and with their own ideas and values.
The World Bank has been one of those forces of colonialism. They determined what would be good for Africa. One of those ideas was reducing the size of government by cutting bureaucracy. Another entrenched concept was patrimonialism, which is the inability of a dominant decision maker to distinguish between the individual and collective in a state that must submit to rules not of their own making. The World Bank has not aided the situation, and may in fact have further complicated it, with a narrow idea that development is equivalent to aggregate national revenue. In fact, disparity has often been the result, with both the newly well off and those left behind suffering from the lack of infrastructure and programs that promote a quality of life that would see the contribution of all maximized.
Change, vision, conflict management and institution building are the solution proposed by Stein. Change needs to occur in the goals of all stakeholders, and these should be based on a vision of a successful Africa, and the policies necessary to support that. Conflict management must occur simultaneously, ensuring that old battles are peacefully settled in a fair manner. This is particularly important where resource ownership is contested and certainty is absent. Institution building is a greater challenge, as it cannot come from external forces. It must be created by internal voices for change with vision.
- Stein, H. (2003). Rethinking African Development. Rethinking Development Economics, 153, 156.
