More About The Site
- walkingtheroads
- Walking The Roads blog is structured towards educating individuals across the globe about the poverty within the continent of Africa. The project started April 2009 and will continue until the organization have met all goals.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
POVERTY IN AFRICA: FACTS - HUNGER AND HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA
"As a consequence of the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa," one report stated, "it is estimated that more than 18 million people have died to date, of which over 3 million were children. Additionally, more than 25 million adults are currently infected which will result in the continued increase in the number of orphaned children.
To date, more than 15 million children have already been orphaned as a result of the epidemic. Another 1 million children are currently infected with the disease."Help fight child poverty in Africa. Help Fight diseases in Africa !
"As a consequence of the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa," one report stated, "it is estimated that more than 18 million people have died to date, of which over 3 million were children.
Additionally, more than 25 million adults are currently infected which will result in the continued increase in the number of orphaned children. To date, more than 15 million children have already been orphaned as a result of the epidemic. Another 1 million children are currently infected with the disease."
To date, more than 15 million children have already been orphaned as a result of the epidemic. Another 1 million children are currently infected with the disease."Help fight child poverty in Africa. Help Fight diseases in Africa !
"As a consequence of the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa," one report stated, "it is estimated that more than 18 million people have died to date, of which over 3 million were children.
Additionally, more than 25 million adults are currently infected which will result in the continued increase in the number of orphaned children. To date, more than 15 million children have already been orphaned as a result of the epidemic. Another 1 million children are currently infected with the disease."
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Let's Define What Poverty Is...
What does it mean to be poor? How is poverty measured? Third World countries are often described as “developing” while the First World, industrialized nations are often “developed”. What does it mean to describe a nation as “developing”? A lack of material wealth does not necessarily mean that one is deprived. A strong economy in a developed nation doesn’t mean much when a significant percentage (even a majority) of the population is struggling to survive.
Successful development can imply many things, such as (though not limited to):
An improvement in living standards and access to all basic needs such that a person has enough food, water, shelter, clothing, health, education, etc;
A stable political, social and economic environment, with associated political, social and economic freedoms, such as (though not limited to) equitable ownership of land and property;
The ability to make free and informed choices that are not coerced;
Be able to participate in a democratic environment with the ability to have a say in one’s own future;
Successful development can imply many things, such as (though not limited to):
An improvement in living standards and access to all basic needs such that a person has enough food, water, shelter, clothing, health, education, etc;
A stable political, social and economic environment, with associated political, social and economic freedoms, such as (though not limited to) equitable ownership of land and property;
The ability to make free and informed choices that are not coerced;
Be able to participate in a democratic environment with the ability to have a say in one’s own future;
Monday, November 2, 2009
Getting a measure of African poverty
Africa is clearly a land of extreme poverty. The continent epitomises destitution, its images commonly used by media and charity organisations to depict human want and suffering. But precisely, how poor are African countries?
One of the most commonly used indicator for expressing the wealth or poverty of nations is Gross National Product (GNP), which is the sum of the value of a nation's output of goods and services. This is calculated by adding up the amount of money spent on a country's final output of goods and services or by totalling the income of all its citizens, including the income from factors of production used abroad. The measure of progress, or lack of it, is indicated by GNP growth rates, i.e., the percentage change in GNP over a period of time, usually a year. The average income of a country's citizens is contained in the GNP per capita, which is the GNP divided by the population.
Structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicated on the assumption that progress can be measured in terms of movements in the GNP or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is similar to GNP but does not include income from abroad. Governments everywhere judge their performance by changes in economic growth rates, congratulating themselves when they achieve or surpass their GDP growth argets.
Using these indices as currently calculated by governments and international organisations African nations are many decades behind developed nations. In 1996, the average of GNP per capita in the industrialised world was $27,086, compared with $528 in Africa. This means that industrialised countries are roughly 51 times wealthier than African nations. At an annual growth rate of three percent it would take Africa about 120 years to reach today's level of wealth of the West. Of course, western nations are unlikely to stand still in the 21st century, so, it seems that African societies striving to catch up with the west have an impossible mission.
How relevant are GNP and GDP data to economic development? Do improvements in GDP growth rates necessarily reflect greater prosperity for the general population? Should African governments give weight to economic growth as presently constructed? These are questions that all who are concerned with development in Africa should seriously ponder.
In recent decades some people have challenged the importance of economic growth, the foundation of classical and orthodox economics, with its roots in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Some writers questioned the validity of the system for accounting the size of economies and asked whether the benefits of growth are wisely distributed.
With respect to developing countries, particularly in Africa, there are a number of flaws in the prevailing method of measuring the size and growth of economies. Firstly the system reflects the general preoccupation of orthodox economics with monetary transactions. The obsession is for what is bought and sold for money, as distinct from the actual output of a community. It means that in developing nations, where a large proportion of economic activity takes place outside the market, GDP figures tend to be understated. Modern conventions of national accounts do not adequately recognise economic activities in the household and community that do not involve the exchange of money.
In developed economies virtually every activity has been commercialised. For instance, the national accounts of any western nation include payments for personal beauty care, which for the US is around $60 billion a year. Such an item would hardly feature in the accounts of African nations. However, this does not mean that African men and women living in villages do not enjoy 'beauty' treatments - it's simply that such activities are not commercialised. In 1996 people in Britain spent some $33 billion on beer, wine and spirits, larger than the GDP of most African countries. But the consumption of palm wine, local spirits and other indigenous alcoholic brews in African villages is not valued and incorporated in national accounts.
In Western capitalist societies, where everything is priced, virtually all aspects of culture is monetized and incorporated in the national accounts. For instance, the total annual expenditure on marriages and funerals in the US runs into several billions of dollars a year. Yet, people marry in African societies in elaborate and joyful ceremonies and the dead are buried with appropriate ritual, but little of these activities get into the national accounts. Leisure and entertainment sectors account for a large proportion of the GDP of western nations, but in the GDP of poor countries these universal components of life hardly figure.
GDP statistics of African nations and other non-western societies do not adequately reflect their cultural output, whilst cultural output forms a significant proportion of the GDP of western nations.
Another reason why prevailing accounting conventions underestimate the national income of developing countries is that a very large proportion of economic activity in these places takes place outside the recorded sector. The so-called informal sector is responsible for most economic activity in African nations but does not appear in the national income sheet because its transactions are unrecorded. The sector, ranging from illegal black market activities, to tax evaders and small-scale producers using simple technology, is essentially defined as economic activity that is unmeasured, unrecorded and, in varying degrees, illegal.
No one knows the size of this sector, also called the black economy or the second economy. Some economists have estimated that it may be as much as two or three times the size of the official GDP. With the rise in corruption and the alienation of the indigenous business community from the state, the size of the informal sector has grown. It does not comprise only of small producers, but includes businesses with large turnovers which to avoid paying taxes or escape stifling state bureaucracies, operate outside the formal recorded economy. With the virtual collapse of the formal sector, tied to external economy, during the past two decades, many producers in the sector have crashed and others have moved into the informal sector.
If African policymakers do not know the actual size and dynamics of their nation's real economy, i.e., the combination of the formal and informal, they cannot properly assess changes in national output to determine whether their society is progressing or regressing. It is possible that an increase in output in the formal sector is more than offset by a decline in the informal sector, meaning that the real economy is actually in recession, as opposed to the official increase in GDP growth. Similarly, when formal sector growth slows, it is possible that the performance of the informal sector is strong enough to push up the growth rate of the real economy.
According to official figures, Nigeria's GDP grew by an average 2.5 percent between 1994-1998, largely reflecting movements in the country's oil export earnings, said to account for about 40 percent of the national output. But no one really knows how Nigeria's real economy fared during this period of heightened corruption and economic demoralisation. Many private sector operators believe that the economy was in recession. In reality, we do not know the truth because a reliable measure of Nigeria's real economy does not exist.
The World Bank and IMF frequently produce GDP data showing that nations that follow SAP prescriptions perform better than those who do not, but these claims are made without information on the output of the informal sector. GDP growth based on the building of new restaurants in urban areas and destruction of indigenous industries hardly amounts to progress.
By arguing that African economies are larger than official GDP statistics suggest, we are not denying the existence of severe poverty in the continent. However, Africa's poverty is so glaring that it does not need to be overstated. To say that Nigeria's GDP per capita is $250 and Mozambique's is $80 as stated in official data is clearly absurd. Given the unequal distribution of income, where the richest 20 percent of the population gulp half or more of the national income, official GDP per income would give an income for the majority of Africans on which it would be impossible to survive. Anyone visiting Nigeria will see evidence of intense poverty, but they will not see millions of people dying of starvation.
To account for differences in the purchasing power of the dollar in different countries, economic agencies publish national income figures that have been adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This is a method of measuring the relative purchasing power of different countries' currencies in order to compare living standards. Using PPP results in substantial increases in the GNP per capita of African countries. For instance, according to World Bank date standard GNP per capita and GNP per capita PPP adjusted for Nigeria was $260 and $1,220 respectively in 1995 and $80 and $810 respectively for Mozambique. On PPP basis, the US per capita income is 24 times Nigeria's, compared with 116 times when standard GDP per capita is used.
Though using PPP allows more accurate comparisons of standards of living across countries, it does not address the question of the under accounting of national economies in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. It could be argued that it makes no difference whether Britain's GDP per capita income is 78 times bigger than Nigeria's or 17 times larger when GDP is adjusted for PPP, or perhaps only fives times larger when Nigeria's informal sector and cultural output are incorporated into its national income. But it can make a difference.
Getting a more accurate picture of the size of African economies will give us a better perspective on the challenge facing African governments and development agencies. The exaggeration of the wealth gap between Africa and the West has the effect of making the prospect of Africans achieving a standard of living comparable to what exist in the West seem almost impossible. When faced with GDP data that suggest that their nations are a century behind developed countries, Africans understandably feel overwhelmed or defeated by the enormity of the task of catching up, and some opt for personal short-cuts to the higher living standards.
We may find that after the formal and informal sectors are integrated into one measured real economy, and financial value is ascribed to non-monetized cultural output of the population, the actual size of African economies are significantly larger than indicated by current GDP data. Furthermore, if the cost of industrial growth, such as environmental degradation, were deducted from the GDP figures of western economies, the prosperity gap between developing and developed nations will narrow further. The GDP of industrialised nations could be discounted for waste of world resources due to over-development, i.e., producing beyond the needs of society.
When considering the material conditions of people in Africa, a distinction should be made between absolute poverty and relative poverty. The former relates to the absence of basic social facilities, such as access to safe water, education, health services and reasonable nutrition. While the latter relates to the lack of access to living standards that are available in modern industrialised societies.
Though abject poverty is widespread in Africa, it does not require decades or a century to eradicate it. With political will and increased investment in human development, within a generation it can be drastically reduced if not eliminated. The costs will be substantial, but not beyond the means African countries. According to the World Bank, in 1988 the estimated cost of providing safe water supplies in Nigeria's rural and urban areas within 20 years was $4.3 billion. This was a piffling amount compared with the more than $200 billion of public funds that has been stolen or squandered on inessential projects since the 1970s, including more than $8 billion spend on a steel industry that has produced little or no steel.
Rather than follow GDP statistics that tell us little about the real economy, African governments should concern themselves with the quality and structure of the growth they pursue. We should focus on those aspects of human existence that define our poverty and ignore those aspects of wealth in the west that are cultural. Africans are not poor because they do not eat beef-burgers, have private cars or attend beauty saloons. They are poor because they lack access to basic social utilities. This requires channelling resources into human development, especially improving the health, education and skill levels of the people as well as expanding job opportunities.
In presenting Africa's poverty relative to the rich west, we should be careful not to devalue the culture of African people. By using GDP statistics which give little or no recognition to the everyday toil and output of ordinary Africans, both the friends and enemies of the continent present Africans as hapless, lazy and unproductive people. Africa's poverty does not need to be overstated or the output of its people ignored to make a case for debt relief or aid for the continent.
One of the most commonly used indicator for expressing the wealth or poverty of nations is Gross National Product (GNP), which is the sum of the value of a nation's output of goods and services. This is calculated by adding up the amount of money spent on a country's final output of goods and services or by totalling the income of all its citizens, including the income from factors of production used abroad. The measure of progress, or lack of it, is indicated by GNP growth rates, i.e., the percentage change in GNP over a period of time, usually a year. The average income of a country's citizens is contained in the GNP per capita, which is the GNP divided by the population.
Structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicated on the assumption that progress can be measured in terms of movements in the GNP or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is similar to GNP but does not include income from abroad. Governments everywhere judge their performance by changes in economic growth rates, congratulating themselves when they achieve or surpass their GDP growth argets.
Using these indices as currently calculated by governments and international organisations African nations are many decades behind developed nations. In 1996, the average of GNP per capita in the industrialised world was $27,086, compared with $528 in Africa. This means that industrialised countries are roughly 51 times wealthier than African nations. At an annual growth rate of three percent it would take Africa about 120 years to reach today's level of wealth of the West. Of course, western nations are unlikely to stand still in the 21st century, so, it seems that African societies striving to catch up with the west have an impossible mission.
How relevant are GNP and GDP data to economic development? Do improvements in GDP growth rates necessarily reflect greater prosperity for the general population? Should African governments give weight to economic growth as presently constructed? These are questions that all who are concerned with development in Africa should seriously ponder.
In recent decades some people have challenged the importance of economic growth, the foundation of classical and orthodox economics, with its roots in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Some writers questioned the validity of the system for accounting the size of economies and asked whether the benefits of growth are wisely distributed.
With respect to developing countries, particularly in Africa, there are a number of flaws in the prevailing method of measuring the size and growth of economies. Firstly the system reflects the general preoccupation of orthodox economics with monetary transactions. The obsession is for what is bought and sold for money, as distinct from the actual output of a community. It means that in developing nations, where a large proportion of economic activity takes place outside the market, GDP figures tend to be understated. Modern conventions of national accounts do not adequately recognise economic activities in the household and community that do not involve the exchange of money.
In developed economies virtually every activity has been commercialised. For instance, the national accounts of any western nation include payments for personal beauty care, which for the US is around $60 billion a year. Such an item would hardly feature in the accounts of African nations. However, this does not mean that African men and women living in villages do not enjoy 'beauty' treatments - it's simply that such activities are not commercialised. In 1996 people in Britain spent some $33 billion on beer, wine and spirits, larger than the GDP of most African countries. But the consumption of palm wine, local spirits and other indigenous alcoholic brews in African villages is not valued and incorporated in national accounts.
In Western capitalist societies, where everything is priced, virtually all aspects of culture is monetized and incorporated in the national accounts. For instance, the total annual expenditure on marriages and funerals in the US runs into several billions of dollars a year. Yet, people marry in African societies in elaborate and joyful ceremonies and the dead are buried with appropriate ritual, but little of these activities get into the national accounts. Leisure and entertainment sectors account for a large proportion of the GDP of western nations, but in the GDP of poor countries these universal components of life hardly figure.
GDP statistics of African nations and other non-western societies do not adequately reflect their cultural output, whilst cultural output forms a significant proportion of the GDP of western nations.
Another reason why prevailing accounting conventions underestimate the national income of developing countries is that a very large proportion of economic activity in these places takes place outside the recorded sector. The so-called informal sector is responsible for most economic activity in African nations but does not appear in the national income sheet because its transactions are unrecorded. The sector, ranging from illegal black market activities, to tax evaders and small-scale producers using simple technology, is essentially defined as economic activity that is unmeasured, unrecorded and, in varying degrees, illegal.
No one knows the size of this sector, also called the black economy or the second economy. Some economists have estimated that it may be as much as two or three times the size of the official GDP. With the rise in corruption and the alienation of the indigenous business community from the state, the size of the informal sector has grown. It does not comprise only of small producers, but includes businesses with large turnovers which to avoid paying taxes or escape stifling state bureaucracies, operate outside the formal recorded economy. With the virtual collapse of the formal sector, tied to external economy, during the past two decades, many producers in the sector have crashed and others have moved into the informal sector.
If African policymakers do not know the actual size and dynamics of their nation's real economy, i.e., the combination of the formal and informal, they cannot properly assess changes in national output to determine whether their society is progressing or regressing. It is possible that an increase in output in the formal sector is more than offset by a decline in the informal sector, meaning that the real economy is actually in recession, as opposed to the official increase in GDP growth. Similarly, when formal sector growth slows, it is possible that the performance of the informal sector is strong enough to push up the growth rate of the real economy.
According to official figures, Nigeria's GDP grew by an average 2.5 percent between 1994-1998, largely reflecting movements in the country's oil export earnings, said to account for about 40 percent of the national output. But no one really knows how Nigeria's real economy fared during this period of heightened corruption and economic demoralisation. Many private sector operators believe that the economy was in recession. In reality, we do not know the truth because a reliable measure of Nigeria's real economy does not exist.
The World Bank and IMF frequently produce GDP data showing that nations that follow SAP prescriptions perform better than those who do not, but these claims are made without information on the output of the informal sector. GDP growth based on the building of new restaurants in urban areas and destruction of indigenous industries hardly amounts to progress.
By arguing that African economies are larger than official GDP statistics suggest, we are not denying the existence of severe poverty in the continent. However, Africa's poverty is so glaring that it does not need to be overstated. To say that Nigeria's GDP per capita is $250 and Mozambique's is $80 as stated in official data is clearly absurd. Given the unequal distribution of income, where the richest 20 percent of the population gulp half or more of the national income, official GDP per income would give an income for the majority of Africans on which it would be impossible to survive. Anyone visiting Nigeria will see evidence of intense poverty, but they will not see millions of people dying of starvation.
To account for differences in the purchasing power of the dollar in different countries, economic agencies publish national income figures that have been adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This is a method of measuring the relative purchasing power of different countries' currencies in order to compare living standards. Using PPP results in substantial increases in the GNP per capita of African countries. For instance, according to World Bank date standard GNP per capita and GNP per capita PPP adjusted for Nigeria was $260 and $1,220 respectively in 1995 and $80 and $810 respectively for Mozambique. On PPP basis, the US per capita income is 24 times Nigeria's, compared with 116 times when standard GDP per capita is used.
Though using PPP allows more accurate comparisons of standards of living across countries, it does not address the question of the under accounting of national economies in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. It could be argued that it makes no difference whether Britain's GDP per capita income is 78 times bigger than Nigeria's or 17 times larger when GDP is adjusted for PPP, or perhaps only fives times larger when Nigeria's informal sector and cultural output are incorporated into its national income. But it can make a difference.
Getting a more accurate picture of the size of African economies will give us a better perspective on the challenge facing African governments and development agencies. The exaggeration of the wealth gap between Africa and the West has the effect of making the prospect of Africans achieving a standard of living comparable to what exist in the West seem almost impossible. When faced with GDP data that suggest that their nations are a century behind developed countries, Africans understandably feel overwhelmed or defeated by the enormity of the task of catching up, and some opt for personal short-cuts to the higher living standards.
We may find that after the formal and informal sectors are integrated into one measured real economy, and financial value is ascribed to non-monetized cultural output of the population, the actual size of African economies are significantly larger than indicated by current GDP data. Furthermore, if the cost of industrial growth, such as environmental degradation, were deducted from the GDP figures of western economies, the prosperity gap between developing and developed nations will narrow further. The GDP of industrialised nations could be discounted for waste of world resources due to over-development, i.e., producing beyond the needs of society.
When considering the material conditions of people in Africa, a distinction should be made between absolute poverty and relative poverty. The former relates to the absence of basic social facilities, such as access to safe water, education, health services and reasonable nutrition. While the latter relates to the lack of access to living standards that are available in modern industrialised societies.
Though abject poverty is widespread in Africa, it does not require decades or a century to eradicate it. With political will and increased investment in human development, within a generation it can be drastically reduced if not eliminated. The costs will be substantial, but not beyond the means African countries. According to the World Bank, in 1988 the estimated cost of providing safe water supplies in Nigeria's rural and urban areas within 20 years was $4.3 billion. This was a piffling amount compared with the more than $200 billion of public funds that has been stolen or squandered on inessential projects since the 1970s, including more than $8 billion spend on a steel industry that has produced little or no steel.
Rather than follow GDP statistics that tell us little about the real economy, African governments should concern themselves with the quality and structure of the growth they pursue. We should focus on those aspects of human existence that define our poverty and ignore those aspects of wealth in the west that are cultural. Africans are not poor because they do not eat beef-burgers, have private cars or attend beauty saloons. They are poor because they lack access to basic social utilities. This requires channelling resources into human development, especially improving the health, education and skill levels of the people as well as expanding job opportunities.
In presenting Africa's poverty relative to the rich west, we should be careful not to devalue the culture of African people. By using GDP statistics which give little or no recognition to the everyday toil and output of ordinary Africans, both the friends and enemies of the continent present Africans as hapless, lazy and unproductive people. Africa's poverty does not need to be overstated or the output of its people ignored to make a case for debt relief or aid for the continent.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Special Thank You(s)!
We would like to thank the following for there support:
Dennis Rawls
Charles Wesson
Your donations are a big factor in this campaign!
Dennis Rawls
Charles Wesson
Your donations are a big factor in this campaign!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Get The Facts!
The rate of child deaths in Africa is 24 times the rate of child deaths in industrialized countries. Sub-Saharan Africa also now accounts for 51 percent of child deaths worldwide.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Investment in Africa expected to fall in ‘09
Tough times are ahead for the world’s poorest countries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released their 2009 World Investment Report last week demonstrating that foreign direct investment (FDI) around the world has been significantly affected by the global economic crisis. Global investment is essential for economic recovery and sustained growth, meaning the lack of foreign direct investment could indicate a slower and weaker economic turnaround and more obstacles for developing countries.
The report found that in the short run, global foreign direct investment is expected to be low. After peaking at $1.98 trillion in 2007, global FDI inflows having been falling since and preliminary data for the first quarter of 2009 shows that inflows fell by 44 percent compared to the same period last year. By the end of 2009, global inflows are expected to fall to below $1.2 billion. Medium-term prospects are slightly more optimistic and gradual recovery is predicted in 2010. However, growth will only significantly accelerate in 2011.
In sub-Saharan Africa, despite an increase in FDI inflows from $44.38 billion in 2007 to about $63.65 billion in 2008, initial data indicates that FDI inflows to every sub-Saharan region except Southern Africa will decrease in 2009, a significant change after five years of consistent growth.
The report found that in the short run, global foreign direct investment is expected to be low. After peaking at $1.98 trillion in 2007, global FDI inflows having been falling since and preliminary data for the first quarter of 2009 shows that inflows fell by 44 percent compared to the same period last year. By the end of 2009, global inflows are expected to fall to below $1.2 billion. Medium-term prospects are slightly more optimistic and gradual recovery is predicted in 2010. However, growth will only significantly accelerate in 2011.
In sub-Saharan Africa, despite an increase in FDI inflows from $44.38 billion in 2007 to about $63.65 billion in 2008, initial data indicates that FDI inflows to every sub-Saharan region except Southern Africa will decrease in 2009, a significant change after five years of consistent growth.
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Opportunity
Last week we focused on the Challenged, This week the focus is the Opportunity:
Millions of lives could be saved if known technologies were available to mothers and children in the world's poorest countries. If women had access to basic maternal health services, 80% of maternal deaths could be prevented. Many of the solutions are extremely affordable, especially for children. More than a quarter of a million children could be saved each year at the cost of $1.25 for a Vitamin A supplement.
Investing in the health of mothers and children could have a lasting impact in the world's poorest countries. Children who lose their mothers are five times more likely to die in infancy than those who do not. Healthy children, meanwhile, are more likely to attend school and learn better in their classes, which will help them grow up to be productive as adults.
Millions of lives could be saved if known technologies were available to mothers and children in the world's poorest countries. If women had access to basic maternal health services, 80% of maternal deaths could be prevented. Many of the solutions are extremely affordable, especially for children. More than a quarter of a million children could be saved each year at the cost of $1.25 for a Vitamin A supplement.
Investing in the health of mothers and children could have a lasting impact in the world's poorest countries. Children who lose their mothers are five times more likely to die in infancy than those who do not. Healthy children, meanwhile, are more likely to attend school and learn better in their classes, which will help them grow up to be productive as adults.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Effects of poverty
The Caption above represents high index values, indicated by lighter colors, show the relative poverty of African countries as ranked by the UNDP's 2004 list of countries by quality of life.Africa's economic malaise is self-perpetuating, as it engenders more of the disease, warfare, misgovernment, and corruption that created it in the first place. Other effects of poverty have similar consequences. The most direct consequence of low GDP is Africa's low standard of living and quality of life. Except for a wealthy elite and the more prosperous peoples of South Africa and the Maghreb, Africans have very few consumer goods. Quality of life does not correlate exactly with a nation's wealth. Angola, for instance, reaps large sums annually from its diamond mines, but after years of civil war, conditions there remain poor. Radios, televisions, and automobiles are rare luxuries. Most Africans are on the far side of the digital divide and are cut off from communications technology and the Internet. Quality of life and human development are also low. African nations dominate the lower reaches of the UN Human Development Index. Infant mortality is high, while life expectancy, literacy, and education are all low. The UN also lowers the ranking of African states because the continent sees greater inequality than any other region. The best educated often choose to leave the continent for the West or the Persian Gulf to seek a better life; in the case of some nations like South Africa, many Caucasians have fled due to employment bias.
Catastrophes cause deadly periods of great shortages. The most damaging are the famines that have regularly hit the continent, especially the Horn of Africa. These have been caused by disruptions due to warfare, years of drought, and plagues of locusts.
An average African faced annual inflation of over 60% from 1990 until 2002 in those few countries that account for inflation. At the high end, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo both saw triple-digit inflation throughout the period. Most African states saw inflation of approximately 10% per year.
There are incomplete numbers for unemployment in most African nations, but it is an important problem. Major cities like Lagos and Kinshasa have large slums of the unemployed and underemployed.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Poverty and Development in Africa
Africa, a continent endowed with immense natural and human resources as well as great cultural, ecological and economic diversity, remains underdeveloped. Most African nations suffer from military dictatorships, corruption, civil unrest and war, underdevelopment and deep poverty. The majority of the countries classified by the UN as least developed are in Africa. Numerous development strategies have failed to yield the expected results. Although some believe that the continent is doomed to perpetual poverty and economic slavery, Africa has immense potential.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
THE CHALLENGE
Every year, more than half a million mothers die from complications during child birth and 8.8 million children die before their fifth birthday. The vast majority of maternal and child deaths occur in the world's poorest countries. Diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles, which are no longer burdens in rich countries, are still the leading cause of child death worldwide. Women in sub-Saharan Africa have a one in 26 chance of dying in childbirth, compared to only one in 4,800 for women in the United States. Weak health systems are one of the biggest reasons behind this enormous gap. A lack of health care workers, clinics and equipment means many women and children don't have access to basic health services including immunizations and care for expectant mothers.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Send Donations 2:
So many individuals have been questioning where to send there donations well here it is:
PO BOX 310655 Atlanta, GA 31131-0655
Again thank you for all your support!
~Walking The Roads
PO BOX 310655 Atlanta, GA 31131-0655
Again thank you for all your support!
~Walking The Roads
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
What We're All About!
It has been brought to my attention that so many individuals LOVE the concept of my project, but are not clear on what it is I'm doing! Below you will find a briefing on what Walking The Roads is all about:
Walking The Roads For Africa is structured towards supplying individuals of poverty within the continent of Africa with a long-term sustainability of shoes. The project starts April 2009 and will continue until we as an organization have met all goals.
C. Hamilton
Executive Director
Walking The Roads For Africa is structured towards supplying individuals of poverty within the continent of Africa with a long-term sustainability of shoes. The project starts April 2009 and will continue until we as an organization have met all goals.
C. Hamilton
Executive Director
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Ending Africa’s Poverty Trap
Africa’s development crisis is unique. Not only is Africa the poorest region in the world, but it was also the only major developing region with negative growth in income per capita during 1980–2000 (table 1). Some African countries grew during the 1990s, but for the most part this growth recovered ground lost during the 1980s. Moreover, Africa’s health conditions are by far the worst on the planet. The AIDS pandemic is wreaking havoc, as is the resurgence of malaria due to rising drug resistance and the lack of effective public health systems. Africa’s population continues to soar, adding ecological stresses to the economic strains. Policy-based development lending to Africa over the past twenty years, known as structural adjustment lending, did not solve the problem. A heavy debt burden is evidenced by the 155 Paris Club restructurings of African countries’ debt between 1980 and 2001, much more than for any other region. In general, Africa remains mired in poverty and debt...
By: JEFFREY D. SACHS
Columbia University and UN Millennium Project
By: JEFFREY D. SACHS
Columbia University and UN Millennium Project
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Measuring Global Poverty
Traditionally, poverty has been measured by the lack of a minimum income (or consumption level) necessary to meet basic needs. Measuring poverty on a global scale requires establishing a uniform poverty level across extremely divergent economies, which can result in only rough comparisons. The World Bank has defined the international poverty line as U.S. $1 and $2 per day in 1993 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)1, which adjusts for differences in the prices of goods and services between countries. The $1 per day level is generally used for the least developed countries, primarily African; the $2-per-day level is used for middle income economies such as those of East Asia and Latin America. By this measure, in 2005 there were 982 million people out of the developing world's 4.8 billion people living on $1 per day, while another 2.5 billion (40% of the world's population) were living on less than $2 per day2. In 2005, The poorest 40% of the world population accounted for 5% of global income. The richest 20% accounted for 75% of world income, and the richest 10% accounted for 54%.
The $1- and $2-per-day measures offer a convenient, albeit crude, way to quantify global poverty. In the last several decades, poverty research has adopted a broader, multidimensional approach, taking into account a variety of social indicators in addition to income. The UN's Human Poverty Index, for example, factors in illiteracy, malnutrition among children, early death, poor health care, and poor access to safe water. Vulnerability to famine or flooding, lack of sanitation, exposure to disease, a diet poor in nutrients, and the absence of education are as much the signs of poverty as material deprivation. Providing the poor with basic social services and infrastructure would in many cases alleviate poverty to a greater extent than simply a rise in income level.
The $1- and $2-per-day measures offer a convenient, albeit crude, way to quantify global poverty. In the last several decades, poverty research has adopted a broader, multidimensional approach, taking into account a variety of social indicators in addition to income. The UN's Human Poverty Index, for example, factors in illiteracy, malnutrition among children, early death, poor health care, and poor access to safe water. Vulnerability to famine or flooding, lack of sanitation, exposure to disease, a diet poor in nutrients, and the absence of education are as much the signs of poverty as material deprivation. Providing the poor with basic social services and infrastructure would in many cases alleviate poverty to a greater extent than simply a rise in income level.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Too poor to grow
Recent theoretical literature has suggested a variety of mechanisms through which poverty may deter growth and become self-perpetuating. A few papers have searched for empirical regularities consistent with those mechanisms such as aggregate non-convexities and convergence clubs. However, a seemingly basic implication of the theoretical models, namely that countries suffering from higher levels of poverty should grow less rapidly, has remained untested. Using a large panel data set, it has been proven that poverty has a negative impact on growth that is significant both statistically and economically. This result is robust to a variety of specification changes, including (i) different poverty lines; (ii) different poverty measures; (iii) different sets of control variables; (iv) different estimation methods; (v) adding inequality as a control variable; and (vi) allowing for nonlinear effects of inequality on growth. In addition, the adverse effect of poverty on growth works through investment: high poverty deters investment, which in turn lowers growth. Further, the data suggest that this mechanism only operates at low levels of financial development, consistent with the predictions of theoretical models that underscore financial market imperfections as a key ingredient of poverty traps.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Getting a measure of African poverty
By Tunde Obadina
Africa is clearly a land of extreme poverty. The continent epitomises destitution, its images commonly used by media and charity organisations to depict human want and suffering. But precisely, how poor are African countries?
One of the most commonly used indicator for expressing the wealth or poverty of nations is Gross National Product (GNP), which is the sum of the value of a nation's output of goods and services. This is calculated by adding up the amount of money spent on a country's final output of goods and services or by totalling the income of all its citizens, including the income from factors of production used abroad. The measure of progress, or lack of it, is indicated by GNP growth rates, i.e., the percentage change in GNP over a period of time, usually a year. The average income of a country's citizens is contained in the GNP per capita, which is the GNP divided by the population.
Structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicated on the assumption that progress can be measured in terms of movements in the GNP or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is similar to GNP but does not include income from abroad. Governments everywhere judge their performance by changes in economic growth rates, congratulating themselves when they achieve or surpass their GDP growth targets.
Using these indices as currently calculated by governments and international organisations African nations are many decades behind developed nations. In 1996, the average of GNP per capita in the industrialised world was $27,086, compared with $528 in Africa. This means that industrialised countries are roughly 51 times wealthier than African nations. At an annual growth rate of three percent it would take Africa about 120 years to reach today's level of wealth of the West. Of course, western nations are unlikely to stand still in the 21st century, so, it seems that African societies striving to catch up with the west have an impossible mission.
How relevant are GNP and GDP data to economic development? Do improvements in GDP growth rates necessarily reflect greater prosperity for the general population? Should African governments give weight to economic growth as presently constructed? These are questions that all who are concerned with development in Africa should seriously ponder.
In recent decades some people have challenged the importance of economic growth, the foundation of classical and orthodox economics, with its roots in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Some writers questioned the validity of the system for accounting the size of economies and asked whether the benefits of growth are wisely distributed.
With respect to developing countries, particularly in Africa, there are a number of flaws in the prevailing method of measuring the size and growth of economies. Firstly the system reflects the general preoccupation of orthodox economics with monetary transactions. The obsession is for what is bought and sold for money, as distinct from the actual output of a community. It means that in developing nations, where a large proportion of economic activity takes place outside the market, GDP figures tend to be understated. Modern conventions of national accounts do not adequately recognise economic activities in the household and community that do not involve the exchange of money.
In developed economies virtually every activity has been commercialised. For instance, the national accounts of any western nation include payments for personal beauty care, which for the US is around $60 billion a year. Such an item would hardly feature in the accounts of African nations. However, this does not mean that African men and women living in villages do not enjoy 'beauty' treatments - it's simply that such activities are not commercialised. In 1996 people in Britain spent some $33 billion on beer, wine and spirits, larger than the GDP of most African countries. But the consumption of palm wine, local spirits and other indigenous alcoholic brews in African villages is not valued and incorporated in national accounts.
In Western capitalist societies, where everything is priced, virtually all aspects of culture is monetized and incorporated in the national accounts. For instance, the total annual expenditure on marriages and funerals in the US runs into several billions of dollars a year. Yet, people marry in African societies in elaborate and joyful ceremonies and the dead are buried with appropriate ritual, but little of these activities get into the national accounts. Leisure and entertainment sectors account for a large proportion of the GDP of western nations, but in the GDP of poor countries these universal components of life hardly figure.
GDP statistics of African nations and other non-western societies do not adequately reflect their cultural output, whilst cultural output forms a significant proportion of the GDP of western nations.
Another reason why prevailing accounting conventions underestimate the national income of developing countries is that a very large proportion of economic activity in these places takes place outside the recorded sector. The so-called informal sector is responsible for most economic activity in African nations but does not appear in the national income sheet because its transactions are unrecorded. The sector, ranging from illegal black market activities, to tax evaders and small-scale producers using simple technology, is essentially defined as economic activity that is unmeasured, unrecorded and, in varying degrees, illegal.
No one knows the size of this sector, also called the black economy or the second economy. Some economists have estimated that it may be as much as two or three times the size of the official GDP. With the rise in corruption and the alienation of the indigenous business community from the state, the size of the informal sector has grown. It does not comprise only of small producers, but includes businesses with large turnovers which to avoid paying taxes or escape stifling state bureaucracies, operate outside the formal recorded economy. With the virtual collapse of the formal sector, tied to external economy, during the past two decades, many producers in the sector have crashed and others have moved into the informal sector.
If African policymakers do not know the actual size and dynamics of their nation's real economy, i.e., the combination of the formal and informal, they cannot properly assess changes in national output to determine whether their society is progressing or regressing. It is possible that an increase in output in the formal sector is more than offset by a decline in the informal sector, meaning that the real economy is actually in recession, as opposed to the official increase in GDP growth. Similarly, when formal sector growth slows, it is possible that the performance of the informal sector is strong enough to push up the growth rate of the real economy.
According to official figures, Nigeria's GDP grew by an average 2.5 percent between 1994-1998, largely reflecting movements in the country's oil export earnings, said to account for about 40 percent of the national output. But no one really knows how Nigeria's real economy fared during this period of heightened corruption and economic demoralisation. Many private sector operators believe that the economy was in recession. In reality, we do not know the truth because a reliable measure of Nigeria's real economy does not exist.
The World Bank and IMF frequently produce GDP data showing that nations that follow SAP prescriptions perform better than those who do not, but these claims are made without information on the output of the informal sector. GDP growth based on the building of new restaurants in urban areas and destruction of indigenous industries hardly amounts to progress.
By arguing that African economies are larger than official GDP statistics suggest, we are not denying the existence of severe poverty in the continent. However, Africa's poverty is so glaring that it does not need to be overstated. To say that Nigeria's GDP per capita is $250 and Mozambique's is $80 as stated in official data is clearly absurd. Given the unequal distribution of income, where the richest 20 percent of the population gulp half or more of the national income, official GDP per income would give an income for the majority of Africans on which it would be impossible to survive. Anyone visiting Nigeria will see evidence of intense poverty, but they will not see millions of people dying of starvation.
To account for differences in the purchasing power of the dollar in different countries, economic agencies publish national income figures that have been adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This is a method of measuring the relative purchasing power of different countries' currencies in order to compare living standards. Using PPP results in substantial increases in the GNP per capita of African countries. For instance, according to World Bank date standard GNP per capita and GNP per capita PPP adjusted for Nigeria was $260 and $1,220 respectively in 1995 and $80 and $810 respectively for Mozambique. On PPP basis, the US per capita income is 24 times Nigeria's, compared with 116 times when standard GDP per capita is used.
Though using PPP allows more accurate comparisons of standards of living across countries, it does not address the question of the under accounting of national economies in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. It could be argued that it makes no difference whether Britain's GDP per capita income is 78 times bigger than Nigeria's or 17 times larger when GDP is adjusted for PPP, or perhaps only fives times larger when Nigeria's informal sector and cultural output are incorporated into its national income. But it can make a difference.
Getting a more accurate picture of the size of African economies will give us a better perspective on the challenge facing African governments and development agencies. The exaggeration of the wealth gap between Africa and the West has the effect of making the prospect of Africans achieving a standard of living comparable to what exist in the West seem almost impossible. When faced with GDP data that suggest that their nations are a century behind developed countries, Africans understandably feel overwhelmed or defeated by the enormity of the task of catching up, and some opt for personal short-cuts to the higher living standards.
We may find that after the formal and informal sectors are integrated into one measured real economy, and financial value is ascribed to non-monetized cultural output of the population, the actual size of African economies are significantly larger than indicated by current GDP data. Furthermore, if the cost of industrial growth, such as environmental degradation, were deducted from the GDP figures of western economies, the prosperity gap between developing and developed nations will narrow further. The GDP of industrialised nations could be discounted for waste of world resources due to over-development, i.e., producing beyond the needs of society.
When considering the material conditions of people in Africa, a distinction should be made between absolute poverty and relative poverty. The former relates to the absence of basic social facilities, such as access to safe water, education, health services and reasonable nutrition. While the latter relates to the lack of access to living standards that are available in modern industrialised societies.
Though abject poverty is widespread in Africa, it does not require decades or a century to eradicate it. With political will and increased investment in human development, within a generation it can be drastically reduced if not eliminated. The costs will be substantial, but not beyond the means African countries. According to the World Bank, in 1988 the estimated cost of providing safe water supplies in Nigeria's rural and urban areas within 20 years was $4.3 billion. This was a piffling amount compared with the more than $200 billion of public funds that has been stolen or squandered on inessential projects since the 1970s, including more than $8 billion spend on a steel industry that has produced little or no steel.
Rather than follow GDP statistics that tell us little about the real economy, African governments should concern themselves with the quality and structure of the growth they pursue. We should focus on those aspects of human existence that define our poverty and ignore those aspects of wealth in the west that are cultural. Africans are not poor because they do not eat beef-burgers, have private cars or attend beauty saloons. They are poor because they lack access to basic social utilities. This requires channelling resources into human development, especially improving the health, education and skill levels of the people as well as expanding job opportunities.
In presenting Africa's poverty relative to the rich west, we should be careful not to devalue the culture of African people. By using GDP statistics which give little or no recognition to the everyday toil and output of ordinary Africans, both the friends and enemies of the continent present Africans as hapless, lazy and unproductive people. Africa's poverty does not need to be overstated or the output of its people ignored to make a case for debt relief or aid for the continent.
Africa is clearly a land of extreme poverty. The continent epitomises destitution, its images commonly used by media and charity organisations to depict human want and suffering. But precisely, how poor are African countries?
One of the most commonly used indicator for expressing the wealth or poverty of nations is Gross National Product (GNP), which is the sum of the value of a nation's output of goods and services. This is calculated by adding up the amount of money spent on a country's final output of goods and services or by totalling the income of all its citizens, including the income from factors of production used abroad. The measure of progress, or lack of it, is indicated by GNP growth rates, i.e., the percentage change in GNP over a period of time, usually a year. The average income of a country's citizens is contained in the GNP per capita, which is the GNP divided by the population.
Structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicated on the assumption that progress can be measured in terms of movements in the GNP or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is similar to GNP but does not include income from abroad. Governments everywhere judge their performance by changes in economic growth rates, congratulating themselves when they achieve or surpass their GDP growth targets.
Using these indices as currently calculated by governments and international organisations African nations are many decades behind developed nations. In 1996, the average of GNP per capita in the industrialised world was $27,086, compared with $528 in Africa. This means that industrialised countries are roughly 51 times wealthier than African nations. At an annual growth rate of three percent it would take Africa about 120 years to reach today's level of wealth of the West. Of course, western nations are unlikely to stand still in the 21st century, so, it seems that African societies striving to catch up with the west have an impossible mission.
How relevant are GNP and GDP data to economic development? Do improvements in GDP growth rates necessarily reflect greater prosperity for the general population? Should African governments give weight to economic growth as presently constructed? These are questions that all who are concerned with development in Africa should seriously ponder.
In recent decades some people have challenged the importance of economic growth, the foundation of classical and orthodox economics, with its roots in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Some writers questioned the validity of the system for accounting the size of economies and asked whether the benefits of growth are wisely distributed.
With respect to developing countries, particularly in Africa, there are a number of flaws in the prevailing method of measuring the size and growth of economies. Firstly the system reflects the general preoccupation of orthodox economics with monetary transactions. The obsession is for what is bought and sold for money, as distinct from the actual output of a community. It means that in developing nations, where a large proportion of economic activity takes place outside the market, GDP figures tend to be understated. Modern conventions of national accounts do not adequately recognise economic activities in the household and community that do not involve the exchange of money.
In developed economies virtually every activity has been commercialised. For instance, the national accounts of any western nation include payments for personal beauty care, which for the US is around $60 billion a year. Such an item would hardly feature in the accounts of African nations. However, this does not mean that African men and women living in villages do not enjoy 'beauty' treatments - it's simply that such activities are not commercialised. In 1996 people in Britain spent some $33 billion on beer, wine and spirits, larger than the GDP of most African countries. But the consumption of palm wine, local spirits and other indigenous alcoholic brews in African villages is not valued and incorporated in national accounts.
In Western capitalist societies, where everything is priced, virtually all aspects of culture is monetized and incorporated in the national accounts. For instance, the total annual expenditure on marriages and funerals in the US runs into several billions of dollars a year. Yet, people marry in African societies in elaborate and joyful ceremonies and the dead are buried with appropriate ritual, but little of these activities get into the national accounts. Leisure and entertainment sectors account for a large proportion of the GDP of western nations, but in the GDP of poor countries these universal components of life hardly figure.
GDP statistics of African nations and other non-western societies do not adequately reflect their cultural output, whilst cultural output forms a significant proportion of the GDP of western nations.
Another reason why prevailing accounting conventions underestimate the national income of developing countries is that a very large proportion of economic activity in these places takes place outside the recorded sector. The so-called informal sector is responsible for most economic activity in African nations but does not appear in the national income sheet because its transactions are unrecorded. The sector, ranging from illegal black market activities, to tax evaders and small-scale producers using simple technology, is essentially defined as economic activity that is unmeasured, unrecorded and, in varying degrees, illegal.
No one knows the size of this sector, also called the black economy or the second economy. Some economists have estimated that it may be as much as two or three times the size of the official GDP. With the rise in corruption and the alienation of the indigenous business community from the state, the size of the informal sector has grown. It does not comprise only of small producers, but includes businesses with large turnovers which to avoid paying taxes or escape stifling state bureaucracies, operate outside the formal recorded economy. With the virtual collapse of the formal sector, tied to external economy, during the past two decades, many producers in the sector have crashed and others have moved into the informal sector.
If African policymakers do not know the actual size and dynamics of their nation's real economy, i.e., the combination of the formal and informal, they cannot properly assess changes in national output to determine whether their society is progressing or regressing. It is possible that an increase in output in the formal sector is more than offset by a decline in the informal sector, meaning that the real economy is actually in recession, as opposed to the official increase in GDP growth. Similarly, when formal sector growth slows, it is possible that the performance of the informal sector is strong enough to push up the growth rate of the real economy.
According to official figures, Nigeria's GDP grew by an average 2.5 percent between 1994-1998, largely reflecting movements in the country's oil export earnings, said to account for about 40 percent of the national output. But no one really knows how Nigeria's real economy fared during this period of heightened corruption and economic demoralisation. Many private sector operators believe that the economy was in recession. In reality, we do not know the truth because a reliable measure of Nigeria's real economy does not exist.
The World Bank and IMF frequently produce GDP data showing that nations that follow SAP prescriptions perform better than those who do not, but these claims are made without information on the output of the informal sector. GDP growth based on the building of new restaurants in urban areas and destruction of indigenous industries hardly amounts to progress.
By arguing that African economies are larger than official GDP statistics suggest, we are not denying the existence of severe poverty in the continent. However, Africa's poverty is so glaring that it does not need to be overstated. To say that Nigeria's GDP per capita is $250 and Mozambique's is $80 as stated in official data is clearly absurd. Given the unequal distribution of income, where the richest 20 percent of the population gulp half or more of the national income, official GDP per income would give an income for the majority of Africans on which it would be impossible to survive. Anyone visiting Nigeria will see evidence of intense poverty, but they will not see millions of people dying of starvation.
To account for differences in the purchasing power of the dollar in different countries, economic agencies publish national income figures that have been adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This is a method of measuring the relative purchasing power of different countries' currencies in order to compare living standards. Using PPP results in substantial increases in the GNP per capita of African countries. For instance, according to World Bank date standard GNP per capita and GNP per capita PPP adjusted for Nigeria was $260 and $1,220 respectively in 1995 and $80 and $810 respectively for Mozambique. On PPP basis, the US per capita income is 24 times Nigeria's, compared with 116 times when standard GDP per capita is used.
Though using PPP allows more accurate comparisons of standards of living across countries, it does not address the question of the under accounting of national economies in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. It could be argued that it makes no difference whether Britain's GDP per capita income is 78 times bigger than Nigeria's or 17 times larger when GDP is adjusted for PPP, or perhaps only fives times larger when Nigeria's informal sector and cultural output are incorporated into its national income. But it can make a difference.
Getting a more accurate picture of the size of African economies will give us a better perspective on the challenge facing African governments and development agencies. The exaggeration of the wealth gap between Africa and the West has the effect of making the prospect of Africans achieving a standard of living comparable to what exist in the West seem almost impossible. When faced with GDP data that suggest that their nations are a century behind developed countries, Africans understandably feel overwhelmed or defeated by the enormity of the task of catching up, and some opt for personal short-cuts to the higher living standards.
We may find that after the formal and informal sectors are integrated into one measured real economy, and financial value is ascribed to non-monetized cultural output of the population, the actual size of African economies are significantly larger than indicated by current GDP data. Furthermore, if the cost of industrial growth, such as environmental degradation, were deducted from the GDP figures of western economies, the prosperity gap between developing and developed nations will narrow further. The GDP of industrialised nations could be discounted for waste of world resources due to over-development, i.e., producing beyond the needs of society.
When considering the material conditions of people in Africa, a distinction should be made between absolute poverty and relative poverty. The former relates to the absence of basic social facilities, such as access to safe water, education, health services and reasonable nutrition. While the latter relates to the lack of access to living standards that are available in modern industrialised societies.
Though abject poverty is widespread in Africa, it does not require decades or a century to eradicate it. With political will and increased investment in human development, within a generation it can be drastically reduced if not eliminated. The costs will be substantial, but not beyond the means African countries. According to the World Bank, in 1988 the estimated cost of providing safe water supplies in Nigeria's rural and urban areas within 20 years was $4.3 billion. This was a piffling amount compared with the more than $200 billion of public funds that has been stolen or squandered on inessential projects since the 1970s, including more than $8 billion spend on a steel industry that has produced little or no steel.
Rather than follow GDP statistics that tell us little about the real economy, African governments should concern themselves with the quality and structure of the growth they pursue. We should focus on those aspects of human existence that define our poverty and ignore those aspects of wealth in the west that are cultural. Africans are not poor because they do not eat beef-burgers, have private cars or attend beauty saloons. They are poor because they lack access to basic social utilities. This requires channelling resources into human development, especially improving the health, education and skill levels of the people as well as expanding job opportunities.
In presenting Africa's poverty relative to the rich west, we should be careful not to devalue the culture of African people. By using GDP statistics which give little or no recognition to the everyday toil and output of ordinary Africans, both the friends and enemies of the continent present Africans as hapless, lazy and unproductive people. Africa's poverty does not need to be overstated or the output of its people ignored to make a case for debt relief or aid for the continent.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Weekly Fact:
POOR FARM POLICY
The agriculture sector accounts for about 60% of African workers. Three-fifths of them are subsistence farmers, trying to eke enough food from their plot to feed their family. The rest work for large multinational industrial farms, or labor on huge export-crop fields.
The agriculture sector accounts for about 60% of African workers. Three-fifths of them are subsistence farmers, trying to eke enough food from their plot to feed their family. The rest work for large multinational industrial farms, or labor on huge export-crop fields.
Cash-strapped African governments try to squeeze every last penny out of their agricultural sector, imposing export taxes and commodity taxes on production. This drives up prices and drives down wages, increasing poverty rates. Meanwhile the governments of European nations and the US do the opposite: they subsidize farmers to the tune of $300 billion US per year.
In addition, African governments often are forced to sell their crops for bargain prices, in order to remain current on their foreign debt load. Importing nations in the developed world know that the producers have to sell at whatever price, so offer artificially low amounts for their produce.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Simple Request!
We would like to thank everyone who has been stop by to view the site. We need the numbers, but we also need comments people! Once again, we do appreciate each and one of you.
~Thank You!
~Thank You!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Special Thank You(s)!
We would like to thank the following for there support:
PHI NU PI
Walter Dula
Carrie Guido
Your donations are a big factor in this campaign!
PHI NU PI
Walter Dula
Carrie Guido
Your donations are a big factor in this campaign!
Angola: Empowerment Project Opens Dialogue between Communities and Local Government
The National Association of Rural Women, popularly known as Tuende - a local language term meaning “let’s walk together” – prides itself in empowering rural communities in Angola to engage with local authorities on development issues, and improve their livelihoods through agriculture.
Supported by the World Bank Civil Society Fund (CSF)1, Tuende recently completed a project that aimed at promoting space for dialogue between rural communities in the Cabiri area of Bengo Province and the local government to discuss rural poverty.
During the implementation of the project, Tuende led a series of training workshops and meetings aimed at improving the relationship between the community and the local government, and the creation of small agricultural cooperatives. The workshops targeted mainly women and youth. Tuende adopted an approach that focused on the community’s strengths, capacities, and assets rather than their problems, and this has yielded tremendous benefits to the community at large.
“Very few of us women beneficiaries of this project have ever participated in a meeting organized by the local authorities to promote social development in the area, but this project has enriched our horizons and has helped us think differently,” explained one of the project beneficiaries.
To ensure sustainability of its interventions, Tuende facilitated and coordinated the formulation of the first Community Strategic Plan (CSP) by the community and local administration representatives. The CSP is now the guiding tool for community development in Cabiri. “This is taking the reduction of rural poverty to a new level,” says Ferreira Jose Kimonokene, the Communal Administrator of Cabiri.
In the course of the project, Tuende conducted more than 35 agricultural training sessions for more than 120 direct project beneficiaries, in partnership with the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA), a department within the Ministry of Agriculture. Tuende members conducted 200 agricultural extension visits, coordinated the creation of a cooperative, and facilitated the gender program implementation of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the area.
Tuende’s participation and implementation of the project was so successful and inclusive that even before its third month of implementation, the local government awarded the association with one farm tractor to help project beneficiaries with their subsistence farming activities such as maize and groundnut seeds, as well as agricultural tools. At the end of the harvesting season four more tractors were provided to speed up the process. In addition, two hectares of land were provided and this has allowed women to expand their subsistence farming activities.
The Communal Administrator of Cabiri justifies his actions and direct support to the project by saying “Tuende’s contribution to the development of this commune has made a real difference – they deserve not just material stuff such as tractors or land, but our respect for the work well done”.
Today, according to Tuende’s president Mama Margarida Solunga, more than 250 women are now in a process of organizing themselves into small agricultural cooperative organizations for mutual self-help and reliance.
“We are really poor and often we sleep with empty stomach, but Tuende members have shown us light at the end of the tunnel. We are now in a better position to fight our daily difficulties”, says Amelsa Bia, a member of a small cooperative being formed under the auspices of the project. Another beneficiary says “I have always wanted to improve the life of my kids, but being poor and illiterate I was unable to be part of any activity in Cabiri but Mama Margarida has been encouraging us to do more for ourselves.”
Behind the scenes, Mama Margarida notes the important role of the project financiers – the CSF and the support from the local government to implement the association’s civic engagement project.
“We relied on funding from the World Bank to ensure that our efforts were seen and felt by these special women, who have dedicated their time and efforts towards the improvement of their relations with the local administration and the success of this project,” said Mama Margarida, who is the driving force of community participation that is gradually shaping various communes in Bengo Province.
In the fiscal year 2009, seven national non governmental organizations were awarded funding from the CSF in Angola. After the success achieved in the previous year, Tuende will continue to implement the project with additional funding from the CSF and the support from the local administration. In the upcoming months, Tuende will conduct a series of workshops targeting not only women, but men and youth. The local administrator has requested that the project be extended to other communes of the province.
Tuende was founded in 2001 by a group of rural women to contribute to the emerging civic movement in Angola. The founding of Tuende took place at a time when a new generation of Angolan Civil Society Organizations emerged during the Lusaka peace process which took place between 1998 and 2002.
Supported by the World Bank Civil Society Fund (CSF)1, Tuende recently completed a project that aimed at promoting space for dialogue between rural communities in the Cabiri area of Bengo Province and the local government to discuss rural poverty.
During the implementation of the project, Tuende led a series of training workshops and meetings aimed at improving the relationship between the community and the local government, and the creation of small agricultural cooperatives. The workshops targeted mainly women and youth. Tuende adopted an approach that focused on the community’s strengths, capacities, and assets rather than their problems, and this has yielded tremendous benefits to the community at large.
“Very few of us women beneficiaries of this project have ever participated in a meeting organized by the local authorities to promote social development in the area, but this project has enriched our horizons and has helped us think differently,” explained one of the project beneficiaries.
To ensure sustainability of its interventions, Tuende facilitated and coordinated the formulation of the first Community Strategic Plan (CSP) by the community and local administration representatives. The CSP is now the guiding tool for community development in Cabiri. “This is taking the reduction of rural poverty to a new level,” says Ferreira Jose Kimonokene, the Communal Administrator of Cabiri.
In the course of the project, Tuende conducted more than 35 agricultural training sessions for more than 120 direct project beneficiaries, in partnership with the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA), a department within the Ministry of Agriculture. Tuende members conducted 200 agricultural extension visits, coordinated the creation of a cooperative, and facilitated the gender program implementation of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the area.
Tuende’s participation and implementation of the project was so successful and inclusive that even before its third month of implementation, the local government awarded the association with one farm tractor to help project beneficiaries with their subsistence farming activities such as maize and groundnut seeds, as well as agricultural tools. At the end of the harvesting season four more tractors were provided to speed up the process. In addition, two hectares of land were provided and this has allowed women to expand their subsistence farming activities.
The Communal Administrator of Cabiri justifies his actions and direct support to the project by saying “Tuende’s contribution to the development of this commune has made a real difference – they deserve not just material stuff such as tractors or land, but our respect for the work well done”.
Today, according to Tuende’s president Mama Margarida Solunga, more than 250 women are now in a process of organizing themselves into small agricultural cooperative organizations for mutual self-help and reliance.
“We are really poor and often we sleep with empty stomach, but Tuende members have shown us light at the end of the tunnel. We are now in a better position to fight our daily difficulties”, says Amelsa Bia, a member of a small cooperative being formed under the auspices of the project. Another beneficiary says “I have always wanted to improve the life of my kids, but being poor and illiterate I was unable to be part of any activity in Cabiri but Mama Margarida has been encouraging us to do more for ourselves.”
Behind the scenes, Mama Margarida notes the important role of the project financiers – the CSF and the support from the local government to implement the association’s civic engagement project.
“We relied on funding from the World Bank to ensure that our efforts were seen and felt by these special women, who have dedicated their time and efforts towards the improvement of their relations with the local administration and the success of this project,” said Mama Margarida, who is the driving force of community participation that is gradually shaping various communes in Bengo Province.
In the fiscal year 2009, seven national non governmental organizations were awarded funding from the CSF in Angola. After the success achieved in the previous year, Tuende will continue to implement the project with additional funding from the CSF and the support from the local administration. In the upcoming months, Tuende will conduct a series of workshops targeting not only women, but men and youth. The local administrator has requested that the project be extended to other communes of the province.
Tuende was founded in 2001 by a group of rural women to contribute to the emerging civic movement in Angola. The founding of Tuende took place at a time when a new generation of Angolan Civil Society Organizations emerged during the Lusaka peace process which took place between 1998 and 2002.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Ethiopia Road Sector Development Project Drives Economic Growth and Opportunity
Roads are the backbone of a country’s infrastructure and the frame of a country’s economic development. They support growth in agriculture and industry, open corridors, port links and tourism areas, and connect each region to the rest of the country. Roads also furnish access to internal markets and social infrastructure such as schools and health centers.In the 1990s, the Government of Ethiopia knew that a major expansion of the road network was necessary to meet its development goals―namely, (a) advance the private sector; (b) upgrade and expand essential infrastructure; and (c) conserve the environment. With this is mind, Ethiopia’s leaders formulated the 10-year Road Sector Development Program (RSDP 1997–2007), a two-phased integrated package of investments, reforms, and institutional reorganization. The program was later extended to include a third phase up to the end of June 2010.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Film: The End of Poverty?
Have you ever wondered why there are poor countries with populations of impoverished people, that seem they will never to be able to join in the wealth of the so called "global economy?" Poverty is not an accident. 1942 marks the birth of modern times when the conquistadors violently extracted gold and other natural resources. Since then our economic system has been financed by the poor by forcing them to give their land and access to natural resources, then through unfair trade, debt repayment and unjust taxes on labor and consumption. This system was carefully built and maintained by the free market policies, resources monopolies and structural adjustment programs by the World Bank and the IMF. Narrated by Martin Sheen
Thursday, July 30, 2009
We Truly are the World
We all have heard this statement before, but how many of us live by this statement?
There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can't go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need
Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand
When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one
~Michael Jackson
This man lived/believed by this statement.
Women at the Helm
Women’s entrepreneurship training constitutes one of the keys for unlocking the creative genius of African women, said Ms. Remi Duyile, a program manager at Gender Entrepreneurship Markets, appealing to women to pursue that path despite the many difficulties and limited access to credit. “Success,” she said, “is a journey. It must never be a destination”.
Ms. Regina Amadi, a retired assistant director general for the International Labor Organization, urged world leaders to attend to what she called “the social dimensions of globalization” and for women around the world to return to what she termed “old time mobilization”: in order to ensure that this decade becomes “an ‘uhuru’ (rallying) moment for gender equality”.
Suggesting that the limited involvement of women in managing global financial issues was one of the reasons for the current global crisis, Baroness Amos, the former leader of the British House of Lords, cited an unnamed source as saying the world might have avoided the current crisis with more women at the helm of financial affairs.
According to Amos: “Someone said the crisis might have been avoided had Lehman Brothers (the last major bank to collapse before stock markets worldwide tanked) had only been Lehwoman Sisters”.
Ms. Regina Amadi, a retired assistant director general for the International Labor Organization, urged world leaders to attend to what she called “the social dimensions of globalization” and for women around the world to return to what she termed “old time mobilization”: in order to ensure that this decade becomes “an ‘uhuru’ (rallying) moment for gender equality”.
Suggesting that the limited involvement of women in managing global financial issues was one of the reasons for the current global crisis, Baroness Amos, the former leader of the British House of Lords, cited an unnamed source as saying the world might have avoided the current crisis with more women at the helm of financial affairs.
According to Amos: “Someone said the crisis might have been avoided had Lehman Brothers (the last major bank to collapse before stock markets worldwide tanked) had only been Lehwoman Sisters”.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Weekly Challenge!
There are so many sneaker boutiques within the States.... What I want to do is challenge these boutiques into hosting a charity sneaker show; an instead of donating money donate a pair of new kicks to someone who really needs them. Who's up to the challenge?
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Global Crisis and its Impact on Women and Girls
The global economic crisis, Ezekwesili explained, is likely to hit African women on two fronts. First, it will arrest capital accumulation by women, and second, it will drastically reduce women’s individual incomes as well as the budgets they manage on behalf of households. This would have damaging consequences notably on the girl child.
With the education of boys largely sheltered from shocks and parents often more likely to pull out a girl from school than a boy when tuition becomes hard to find, the World Bank Vice President cited research findings on household income declines in Uganda and a fall in income from agriculture in Madagascar where girls were first to be pulled out of schools.
The World Bank has warned that an additional 700,000 African infants are likely to die before their first birthday as a result of the crisis. The girl child will be hit hardest. Research has shown that “girls are five times more likely to be impacted by increases in infant mortality rate than boys.”
Unlike in rich countries such as the United States, where more men have tended to lose their jobs compared to women, the crisis in Africa is leaving women with ever fewer job choices. In many export-oriented industries – for example, the cut-flower industry in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda and the textile industry in Kenya and Lesotho – it is women, not men, across Africa who are bleeding jobs because of the crisis.
Declining remittances and a tightening of micro-finance lending would further restrict the funds available to women to run their households.
With the education of boys largely sheltered from shocks and parents often more likely to pull out a girl from school than a boy when tuition becomes hard to find, the World Bank Vice President cited research findings on household income declines in Uganda and a fall in income from agriculture in Madagascar where girls were first to be pulled out of schools.
The World Bank has warned that an additional 700,000 African infants are likely to die before their first birthday as a result of the crisis. The girl child will be hit hardest. Research has shown that “girls are five times more likely to be impacted by increases in infant mortality rate than boys.”
Unlike in rich countries such as the United States, where more men have tended to lose their jobs compared to women, the crisis in Africa is leaving women with ever fewer job choices. In many export-oriented industries – for example, the cut-flower industry in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda and the textile industry in Kenya and Lesotho – it is women, not men, across Africa who are bleeding jobs because of the crisis.
Declining remittances and a tightening of micro-finance lending would further restrict the funds available to women to run their households.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Gender-focused Development Initiatives
Conference participants reached consensus that development and poverty alleviation strategies that fail to target girls and women have little to no chance of success in Africa.
Ms. Ezekwesili drew attention to the Gender Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) initiative launched by the Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to enhance women’s access to finance and address gender barriers to the business environment. The $50 million GEM has benefited over 1,500 women in 18 sub-Saharan African countries and will be enhanced by a recent $120 million loan program that the IFC signed with EcoBank to benefit businesswomen in five countries.
In addition, the Bank has adopted a Gender Action Plan and launched an $11 million, three-year Adolescent Girls Initiative to train, mentor, empower and facilitate the transition of young African women to work in Liberia, Southern Sudan and Rwanda. In addition, 83 Bank-funded projects totaling $4.4 billion have female economic empowerment components; the majority of them (33) in agriculture, education (34), infrastructure (11) and private sector development (5).
Other speakers at the conference struck similar chords.
Speaking on behalf of the British ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the deputy head of mission, Dominick Chilcott, stressed the link between women’s empowerment and development. The road to sustainable development, he said, is only attainable if it is built on a gender inclusive agenda.
“We must take the opportunities presented by the crisis to innovate and invest in women, whether it is proposals to introduce better social programs, finding ways of integrating women into the labor force, or reducing discrimination in financial markets,” he said, citing remarks by Sheinwald.
In a video message, Ms. Sarah Brown, the spouse of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, spoke of the need for world leaders to tackle “the many injustices that remain” against women.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, U.S. President Barack Obama’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the State Department, urged development agencies to “think women”.
“You cannot beat poverty without putting women at the center of your development strategies,” she said.
“Women’s equality is not just the right thing to do, it is also smart economics,” she added, paraphrasing the World Bank. She pointed out that women were key to food security and agriculture; essential players in the promotion of the rights of the child; major actors in health care provision; yet continued to suffer discrimination in powerful board rooms; and on higher rungs of corporate ladders.
Ms. Ezekwesili drew attention to the Gender Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) initiative launched by the Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to enhance women’s access to finance and address gender barriers to the business environment. The $50 million GEM has benefited over 1,500 women in 18 sub-Saharan African countries and will be enhanced by a recent $120 million loan program that the IFC signed with EcoBank to benefit businesswomen in five countries.
In addition, the Bank has adopted a Gender Action Plan and launched an $11 million, three-year Adolescent Girls Initiative to train, mentor, empower and facilitate the transition of young African women to work in Liberia, Southern Sudan and Rwanda. In addition, 83 Bank-funded projects totaling $4.4 billion have female economic empowerment components; the majority of them (33) in agriculture, education (34), infrastructure (11) and private sector development (5).
Other speakers at the conference struck similar chords.
Speaking on behalf of the British ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the deputy head of mission, Dominick Chilcott, stressed the link between women’s empowerment and development. The road to sustainable development, he said, is only attainable if it is built on a gender inclusive agenda.
“We must take the opportunities presented by the crisis to innovate and invest in women, whether it is proposals to introduce better social programs, finding ways of integrating women into the labor force, or reducing discrimination in financial markets,” he said, citing remarks by Sheinwald.
In a video message, Ms. Sarah Brown, the spouse of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, spoke of the need for world leaders to tackle “the many injustices that remain” against women.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, U.S. President Barack Obama’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the State Department, urged development agencies to “think women”.
“You cannot beat poverty without putting women at the center of your development strategies,” she said.
“Women’s equality is not just the right thing to do, it is also smart economics,” she added, paraphrasing the World Bank. She pointed out that women were key to food security and agriculture; essential players in the promotion of the rights of the child; major actors in health care provision; yet continued to suffer discrimination in powerful board rooms; and on higher rungs of corporate ladders.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
In Africa, 'Poverty Has a Female Face'
The global economic crisis will drastically reduce African women’s individual incomes as well as the budgets they manage on behalf of their households, with particularly damaging consequences for girls, said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region, at a recent conference on the impact of the global economic crisis on women in Africa.
“Poverty has a female face and the global economic downturn will have a significant impact on women as more of them lose jobs and are forced to manage shrinking household incomes,” Ezekwesili said May 8 at the “Women and the Changing Global Outlook” conference organized by the British Embassy in Washington, and the National Geographic Society.
“The face of poverty is female,” she said, sketching the portrait of the typical poor African youth.
“She is 18.5 years old. She lives in a rural area. She has dropped out of school. She is single, but is about to be married or be given in marriage to a man approximately twice her age. She will be the mother of six or seven kids in another 20 years,” said Ezekwesili, citing the findings of the latest edition of the annual World Bank publication, Africa Development Indicators (ADI).
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
So many organizations donate clothing to America and other countries as well. By no means is this an issue, but what about the third world countries and continents that are in great need. One continent in particular is Africa. Shoes along with clothing protect us as a human race from deadly deceases, that some of us couldn't even imagine. The time is now, we need to make this world a better place for all.
I'm no longer asking and I now demanding that we as a human race come together and support the cause of giving back to those in great need. Walking The Roads, LLC goals is to provide shoes for every individual in great need. We as Americans take so many things for granted. Some time today I want you to stop what you are doing and think about how many shoes you have in your closet. Following that thought think about the individual who've never own a pair of shoes. Africa: The Lost Continent
Home to one-sixth of the world's people, but contributing only one-fortieth of world GDP, Africa is the most conspicuous victim of the global recession. After a half-decade of 5 per cent growth, the continent's growth rate is expected to halve in 2009. Some countries, like Angola, are contracting. Elsewhere, the crisis has swept away the benefits of several years of economic reform. Many Africans will fall back into desperate poverty.
Development economists wring their hands in despair: Africa defies their best efforts to create a miracle. On the eve of decolonisation in 1960, real GDP per head in sub-Saharan Africa was almost three times higher than in Southeast Asia, and Africans were expected to live two years longer on average. In the 50 years since, African real GDP per head grew by 38 per cent and people lived nine years longer, while in Southeast Asia GDP per head grew by 1,000 per cent and people lived 32 years longer.
At first, the solution for Africa's under-development seemed obvious. Africa needed capital, but lacked savings. Therefore, money had to be provided from outside - by institutions like the World Bank. Since extracting commercial interest rates from starving people seemed like usury, the loans had to be offered on a concessionary basis - in effect, aid.
Throwing money at poverty became a panacea. It was easy to sell, and it appealed to people's humanitarian instincts. It also assuaged the guilt of colonialism, as with parents who give their children expensive gifts to make up for neglecting or mistreating them. But it did no good. Most aid was stolen or wasted. Despite the eight-fold increase in aid per head to the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1960 and 2007, real GDP per head decreased by two-thirds in the same period.
"Trade not Aid" became the new watchword. Spearheaded by the economist Peter Bauer in the 1980s, it became the nostrum of the Washington Consensus. Africa, it was fashionable to say, would catch up only if it deregulated its economies and embraced export-led growth like the "miracle" economies of East Asia. Advisers from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund told African governments to stop subsidising "national champions" and drop their trade barriers. Provision of a reduced volume of aid was to be conditioned on dismantling the public sector.
By 1996, only 1 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa was civil servants, compared to 3 per cent in other developing regions and 7 per cent in the OECD. Yet despite the rollback of the state, Africa has not made the leap to prosperity. In a complete affront to economic theory, the little capital there is in Africa is fleeing the continent to be invested in already capital-rich societies.
The problem with Africa, economists then started to say, was that it lacked effective states. Many countries had "failed" states that could not provide even the minimum conditions of security and health. With 15 per cent of the world's population, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 88 per cent of the world's conflict-related deaths and 65 per cent of AIDS victims. What historians have known for 2,000 years - and what the 18th century's classical economists also knew - suddenly struck the new breed of mathematical economists in the 1990s like a flash of lightning: prosperity depends on good government.
So how to get good government? Restoring or securing it conjures up the dreaded spectre of colonialism. After all, for all its other failings, colonialism provided the essential precondition of economic development: peace and security. The development discussion today is essentially about how such preconditions of poverty reduction and economic growth can be achieved without colonialism.
The most interesting contemporary contribution is by the Oxford economist Paul Collier. He argues that many African states have fallen into one or several development traps that are extremely difficult to escape. Moreover, once a country is mired in one of them, it is easy to fall into the next. Being poor makes you prone to conflict, and being in conflict makes you poor. So what hope is there for a poor country torn by civil war?
Citing the British mission to Sierra Leone, Collier argues for military intervention, when feasible, to secure peace. He supports international involvement to enforce post-conflict peace. But ongoing international assistance should be limited to providing voluntary good-governance templates.
Frameworks for how governments should make public spending transparent or how foreign resource-extracting companies should report their profits would make yardstick comparisons easier for local political activists, as well as providing a source of legitimacy for the government. The much-discussed Kimberly Process is a pilot project. Diamond companies volunteer not to buy from conflict areas in an attempt to prevent diamonds from funding warlords. This would be good for business, as affluent Western customers are now put off by the thought of buying blood-soaked jewellery.
Regional integration has featured prominently only in the last 50 years in Europe, but it has already resulted in a host of political and economic benefits to Europeans. Considerable evidence indicates that integration could be beneficial for Africa as well, given a framework suitable for African conditions.
This is a project worth supporting. Other efforts worthy of attention include formalising the huge informal economy in states such as Ghana. Typically, these are projects that employ international expertise under domestically issued mandates.
It is a sign of the poverty of development economics that proposals such as these are regarded as cutting edge. However, as long as there is a roadblock every 14 kilometres between Lagos and Abidjan - two of West Africa's leading cities - progress on the ground will be slow.
With refugees spilling over borders, pirates hijacking ships, and terrorists finding shelter, it is clear that, although Africa's solutions are its own, its problems are not. The rest of the world can no longer afford Africa's poverty. But the evidence of 50 years of failed efforts is that it hasn't a clue what to do about it.
Development economists wring their hands in despair: Africa defies their best efforts to create a miracle. On the eve of decolonisation in 1960, real GDP per head in sub-Saharan Africa was almost three times higher than in Southeast Asia, and Africans were expected to live two years longer on average. In the 50 years since, African real GDP per head grew by 38 per cent and people lived nine years longer, while in Southeast Asia GDP per head grew by 1,000 per cent and people lived 32 years longer.
At first, the solution for Africa's under-development seemed obvious. Africa needed capital, but lacked savings. Therefore, money had to be provided from outside - by institutions like the World Bank. Since extracting commercial interest rates from starving people seemed like usury, the loans had to be offered on a concessionary basis - in effect, aid.
Throwing money at poverty became a panacea. It was easy to sell, and it appealed to people's humanitarian instincts. It also assuaged the guilt of colonialism, as with parents who give their children expensive gifts to make up for neglecting or mistreating them. But it did no good. Most aid was stolen or wasted. Despite the eight-fold increase in aid per head to the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1960 and 2007, real GDP per head decreased by two-thirds in the same period.
"Trade not Aid" became the new watchword. Spearheaded by the economist Peter Bauer in the 1980s, it became the nostrum of the Washington Consensus. Africa, it was fashionable to say, would catch up only if it deregulated its economies and embraced export-led growth like the "miracle" economies of East Asia. Advisers from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund told African governments to stop subsidising "national champions" and drop their trade barriers. Provision of a reduced volume of aid was to be conditioned on dismantling the public sector.
By 1996, only 1 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa was civil servants, compared to 3 per cent in other developing regions and 7 per cent in the OECD. Yet despite the rollback of the state, Africa has not made the leap to prosperity. In a complete affront to economic theory, the little capital there is in Africa is fleeing the continent to be invested in already capital-rich societies.
The problem with Africa, economists then started to say, was that it lacked effective states. Many countries had "failed" states that could not provide even the minimum conditions of security and health. With 15 per cent of the world's population, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 88 per cent of the world's conflict-related deaths and 65 per cent of AIDS victims. What historians have known for 2,000 years - and what the 18th century's classical economists also knew - suddenly struck the new breed of mathematical economists in the 1990s like a flash of lightning: prosperity depends on good government.
So how to get good government? Restoring or securing it conjures up the dreaded spectre of colonialism. After all, for all its other failings, colonialism provided the essential precondition of economic development: peace and security. The development discussion today is essentially about how such preconditions of poverty reduction and economic growth can be achieved without colonialism.
The most interesting contemporary contribution is by the Oxford economist Paul Collier. He argues that many African states have fallen into one or several development traps that are extremely difficult to escape. Moreover, once a country is mired in one of them, it is easy to fall into the next. Being poor makes you prone to conflict, and being in conflict makes you poor. So what hope is there for a poor country torn by civil war?
Citing the British mission to Sierra Leone, Collier argues for military intervention, when feasible, to secure peace. He supports international involvement to enforce post-conflict peace. But ongoing international assistance should be limited to providing voluntary good-governance templates.
Frameworks for how governments should make public spending transparent or how foreign resource-extracting companies should report their profits would make yardstick comparisons easier for local political activists, as well as providing a source of legitimacy for the government. The much-discussed Kimberly Process is a pilot project. Diamond companies volunteer not to buy from conflict areas in an attempt to prevent diamonds from funding warlords. This would be good for business, as affluent Western customers are now put off by the thought of buying blood-soaked jewellery.
Regional integration has featured prominently only in the last 50 years in Europe, but it has already resulted in a host of political and economic benefits to Europeans. Considerable evidence indicates that integration could be beneficial for Africa as well, given a framework suitable for African conditions.
This is a project worth supporting. Other efforts worthy of attention include formalising the huge informal economy in states such as Ghana. Typically, these are projects that employ international expertise under domestically issued mandates.
It is a sign of the poverty of development economics that proposals such as these are regarded as cutting edge. However, as long as there is a roadblock every 14 kilometres between Lagos and Abidjan - two of West Africa's leading cities - progress on the ground will be slow.
With refugees spilling over borders, pirates hijacking ships, and terrorists finding shelter, it is clear that, although Africa's solutions are its own, its problems are not. The rest of the world can no longer afford Africa's poverty. But the evidence of 50 years of failed efforts is that it hasn't a clue what to do about it.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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