This paper intends to focus on Africa’s Stagnant Development. Development could be said to be the sustained actions of policy makers and the communities at large to promote economic health and standard of living of a specific geographical location.
Economic development can be said to be qualitative and quantitative changes in the economy. Such actions could involve development of infrastructure, human capital, social inclusion, health, literacy and other crucial initiatives.
This paper will first take a concise look at the concept of development and further explore why Africa’s development is stagnant, which will involve the causes and various mechanics that makes Africa’s development stagnant. The final section of this paper will focus on projecting a way forward for Africa’s development.
2. The Concept of Development
Development is the continuous actions of policy makers and the society at large in promoting a rise in living standards and economic health of a specific geographical location. Development could be structured in terms of economic development and economic growth. Economic development encompasses policy intervention aimed at economic and social well-being of the people while economic growth refers to market productivity and rise in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is said that growth causes development, due to the fact that an increase in income will be spent on human development such as health and education.
Ranis et al explained that economic growth and development have a two way relationship, which further stated that the first sequence consist of economic growth that benefits human development since economic growth will likely enable individuals and families to use their elevated incomes to rise expenditures, which will in turn drive human development. Also, with an increase in consumption and spending, education, health and infrastructure systems will grow thereby contributing to economic growth.
In addition to the rise in private incomes, economic growth could also generate extra resources that can be used to better social services. By generating extra resources for social services, uneven income distribution will be lessened; as such, social services shared evenly across community, thereby each individual benefiting. Categorically, the relationship between economic development and human development can be stated in three ways .
a) Capability expansion through economic growth
This concept stipulates that a rise in average income will lead to an improvement in nutrition and health.
b) Capability expansion through poverty reduction
This is encompasses a belief that social outcomes can be improved by decreasing income poverty.
c) Capability expansion through social services
This says that social outcome can attain improvement with essential services such as primary health care, portable clean drinking water and education
Development crucially relates to rise in human capital indexes, a structural change that tends to enhance the quality of life of the general population and inequality figures decreasing . Africa still faces underdevelopment even amidst vast amount of natural and human resources.
Under-development refers to when resources are not fully utilized in fulfilling their socio-economic prospects. Nations that are underdeveloped encompass a wide imbalance between their poor and rich populations and an unfavorable balance of trade. Features of underdevelopment include lack of access to proper health care facilities, food, job opportunities, housing and education.
3. Africa’s Stagnant Development
Africa continues to experience stagnant development amidst abundance of natural resources, foreign aids and even technological advancement. It’s said that Africa’s stagnant development is due to unfavourable government policies, corruption, improper utilization of natural resources, vast amount of inequality, the continuous existence of personal rule, disregard for the rule of law and the lack of good governance.
The popular image of Africa is a continent of immense corrupt heads of government who super-see over fractious populations. The personal rule Paradigm and Patrimonialism can be used in this same context, which refers to a political system that its military and administrative staff is considered to be the personal retainers of the head of government. The key features of this kind of political systems are that positions are dependent on one’s loyalty to superiors and political office are treated as a personal property and source for private gains.
Personal rule can be described as politics of patronage: the distribution of public works projects, tax breaks, permits and so on are done in return for loyalty. The state in this context does not operate according to operational rules; rather it operates by personal relationships. Corruption exists in this political system because patronage politics correlates with corruption whereby favours and political positions are based on loyalty rather than the appointment of professionals.
The amassing of private wealth by public officials in Africa has become a norm, this serves as an enabler for corruption. Corruptions takes the framework of using public office or public positions with the intent of establishing private prowess and assemble private capital either through property purchases, business deals, or other means of maneuvering public office or position for personal gain .
The personal rule system allows public resources to be used for private purposes which ultimately results in a lack of public investments. The government purveys private accumulation thereby not planning for the common good. Development is neglected in this political system, and the focus is using public resources as a tool for personal enrichment by the public office holder at the detriment of development of the State.
Most African countries operate on the basis of personal rule which gives rise to corruption, and due to the focus on personal enrichment, infrastructure development is neglected, educational sector, health sector and even the economy suffers neglect.
Personal rule threatens institutions that should facilitate development. Favourable domestic policy is a key factor to economic development and growth. Personal rule undermines favourable domestic policy, whereby policies are drafted according to the will and possible benefit of the head of governments and not in favour of the populace.
Personal rule gives rise to policies that are unfavourable to the populace thereby weakening infrastructural development, existence of high inflation, scare foreign investments and creating an imbalance in the growth and development of that economy. Personal rule concepts help in explaining and understanding Africa’s problem with development.
Most of the world’s foreign aid is poured into Africa, millions of dollars are given to Africa yearly and international organization such as the World Bank, IMF, DFID, United Nations and various NGOs are charged with the responsibility of international development. Even with all this help, Africa’s development is relatively stalled. The major problem with Africa is said to be corruption. Misappropriation of resources has been a major factor hindering Africa’s developmental progress.
African countries are engrossed with vast amount of public debts to multinational organizations and foreign countries with little or no prospect for repayment. Inflow of aids have kept African nations from international bankruptcy, the extreme dependence on aid without proper regulation of how aids should be spent, or what penalties African states will pass through if foreign aids are not properly utilized gave rise to misappropriation of foreign aids which in turn affects and disrupts the aim of foreign aids.
Civil Conflicts in Africa
Africa has experienced immense conflicts from ethnicity, religion, boundary disputes, and cultural norms differences. The issue of tolerance has made this issue escalate into civil unrest, loss of lives and barriers towards trade and economic output.
Some of the conflicts happening in Africa have endured decades and have become the life experiences from generation to generation. The need to understand Africa’s civil conflicts by policy makers is crucial due to their responsibility in trying to rectify the causes. Most African civil conflicts are entrenched in local politics.
The key partakers of civil conflict all fight for a cause which may be control of territories, resource control, political power or control of viable economic markets. In gaining legitimacy for the cause or win sympathizers, they tend to promote civil conflicts to justify their actions as part of a much larger scheme. Agitating in the name of a group or community is part of the way to gain support and situate causes in a nobler framework.
Civil conflict in Africa is very common and it may relate to the issue of tribalism due to Africa’s vast ethnicity circle . Civil conflict tends to affect development due to the loss of lives, economic life and community relationship which mostly facilitates trade and investments.
The Bottom Billion
The countries at the bottom exist side by side with the twenty-first century but their reality is the thirteenth century which encompassed plague, ignorance and civil war. The Millennium development goals which was designed by the United Nations was charged with the aim of driving international development by eradicating poverty, fostering quality education, fighting HIV and Aids, gender equality and addressing sustainable environment.
The MDGs failed to achieve the agenda set out due to unfavourable government policies of the host countries, and various modalities and framework that failed in tackling the MDG’s agenda due to inexperienced personnel in charge of MDGs office in the host country, vast amount of corruption and the absence of sanctions if goals were not achieved to a sizeable extent.
Groups of countries at the bottom are falling apart and behind. The bottom billon tend to disunite from an increasing sophisticated world economy which encompassed technological advancement, industrial revolution and vast educational and research based innovation, which all drive growth and development. With the factors outlined, integration will become harder due to the vast differences in development .
4. Africa’s Stagnant Development: Way Forward
Economic stability or viability and favourable government policies are factors in driving Africa from a stagnant economy in relation to development into a progressing economy. Some may argue that Africa is experiencing favourable growth and development due to rise in Gross Domestic Product. Nigeria for example became the largest economy in Africa after its rebasing but that does not negate the existence of abject poverty, infrastructural backwardness, and under-development.
Africa’s problems are quite simple; the existence of massive corruption which makes public officials loot public funds meant for public developmental projects into private use needs to be tackled. Mechanisms needs to be put in place that will enable the tracing and recovering of public funds that will in turn be injected back into the public development projects that will enable growth and development.
Public assets declaration by African leaders, politicians and heads of governments is key to transparency thereby checkmating corruption. This will build confidence among the public and expose individuals who have ulterior motives. Foreign aids are quite beneficial but the issue of mis-management of resources gotten from aids has been a problem why foreign aid most times does not get to the grassroots.
Public officials mis-manage foreign aids and this boils down to the issue of corruption which affects development immensely. Sanctions should be put in place by international bodies who grant those aids. International bodies also need to set-up a team charged with the responsibilities of monitoring how aids operations are carried out and create an enabling environment that will facilitate sustainable development.
Good governance is also a critical factor in achieving growth and development. A country filled with chaos and instability can hardly have an enabling environment that drives development. Free press, independent judiciary, free and fair elections and the adherence of the rule of law are all modalities that attract foreign investors and create a stable and enabling economy that drives development.
Government polices often determine the outlook and modalities of framework and objectives the government set out to achieve. The essence of government policies that are in-line with the populace is crucial in tailoring policies to the needs of the people which will foster quick and rapid development. International organizations such as IMF, the World Bank and UNDP are institutions that are center to international development policy framework.
The conflicts and rivalry in objectives among these international organizations have led to series of confusion in advice they give to Africa and African leaders. They sometimes ignite unnecessary arguments and put ideology far ahead of the facts. The World Bank is charged in investing in the long-term fabric of economies. The IMF’s approaches are short-term, rigid and orthodox. International Organizations should harmonize their working relationship in order to achieve the common goal of international development .
Driving Africa’s Growth and Development
Africa has huge potential in the achievement of economic growth and development. Growth and development are attainable with the right mechanics in place, and Africa government needs to focus and create an enabling environment to be a driver of growth and development. Natural, Human and viable economic resources should be in place to drive immense development.
The above chart showcased Africa’s growth was widespread across various sectors in the economy: 2002 – 2007.
The reasons behind this growth, included actions to improve macroeconomic conditions, end armed conflicts and undertake reforms in the microeconomic framework in creating better business climate. Africa’s economies became healthier due to the reduction of inflation rates from 22% in the 1990’s to 8% after 2000. African governments also trimmed foreign debts by one-quarter and reduced budget deficit by two-thirds.
The adoption of policies in energizing markets was a critical role played by African governments. The privatization of state owned properties, increased trade openness, strengthened legal and regulatory systems, lowered corporate taxes, and provided critical social and physical infrastructure. Nigeria privatized a total of 116 enterprises between 1999 and 2006, and Egypt and Morocco struck trade agreements with major export partners. Although policies of many African governments are far-fetched, these important emerging steps enabled the boost of a private business sector.
Africa has been gaining vast increase in access to international capital, the annual inflow of foreign direct investment in Africa rose from 9 billion dollars in 2000 to 62 billion dollars in 2008 relative to GDP, Africa’s resource sectors have drawn the most new foreign capital, which has flowed into textiles, banking, tourism, constructions and telecommunications .
Chart:
Segmenting African countries by exports per capita and by economic diversification reveals how growth opportunities and challenges vary across the continent.
5. Conclusion
Development is the sustained actions of policy makers and the communities at large to promote economic health and standard of living of a specific geographical location while Economic development can be described as the qualitative and quantitative changes in the economy. Such actions could involve development of infrastructure, human capital, social inclusion, health, literacy and other crucial initiatives.
This paper took a broad look at the concept of development and further discussed why Africa’s development is stagnant, which encompassed the causes and various mechanics that results in what’s making Africa’s development stagnant. The paper explained that; Africa’s stagnant development is due to unfavourable government policies, corruption, improper utilization of natural resources, vast amount of inequality, the continuous existence of personal rule, disregard for the rule of law and the lack of good governance.
This paper illustrated that the way forward in driving Africa from a stagnant development into an economy that will become prosperous is left for Africa’s heads of government to drive and concentrate on economic stability while favourable polices are adhered too which are key factors in moving Africa from a stagnant economy in relation to development into a progressing economy.