4/6/2023 0 Comments Paradigm shift central“Africa may become a growing region for low-wage light manufacturing exports as countries like China look elsewhere to produce such goods,” said Mr. Other observers, though, are more hopeful that Africa may be able to move on from its traditional position as an exporter of raw materials as the cost of labor rises within China itself. Some Western donors decry Chinese largess, which comes without the good governance strings often attached to Western funds. Yet even as the traditional aid apparatus reformulates its priorities, two separate developments offer the potential of a brighter, or at least different, economic future for Africa. “You don’t go about changing a winning team,” the minister of information and communication, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, said. There was barely a whisper of public protest. Sam-Sumana’s involvement in local corruption scandals. Last week, for example, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone kept his vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, as his running mate for presidential elections next month despite Mr. “While people may respect honesty, they may also admire the ability to succeed.” “Leaders in Africa, and in some other places too, play on moral themes that are ambiguous,” said Stephen Ellis, a historian who has studied Madagascar, South Africa and Liberia. Local NGOs struggle to mobilize public outrage at politicians who profit indecently from their positions. In practice this means financing local nongovernmental organizations that are designed to act as checks and balances on state power.Īs with ownership, however, the civil society push has proved problematic. After years of directly prompting African governments to deliver better services, donors shifted their emphasis to the demand side. “What you try to do is support people in the country.”Ĭivil society is another central plank of contemporary aid doctrine. “The notion of a country as the government is fundamentally flawed,” Mr. And some people say the goals paid too little heed to actually lifting countries from poverty. They were meant to be met by 2015, but progress has been uneven. They include reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and fighting diseases like H.I.V. The eight Millennium Development Goals, established at a United Nations conference in 2000, are central to aid policy. “It’s a commodity-based boom that has very fragile underpinnings,” he said. He is wary, however, of attributing too much to the data. “Africa is doing better in growth, there’s no doubt about that,” said Jonathan Di John, an economist at the School of Oriental and African Studies, part of the University of London. Today, with growth in many countries reviving, the Bretton Woods organizations and other donors prefer to talk about governance, strengthening institutions and social programs. In the 1980s the International Monetary Fund, which with its sister institution the World Bank has directed much of the donor aid to Africa, pushed “structural adjustment programs,” attempting to shrink African governments, trim bloated public sectors and open up trade. The shifting landscape of African politics and economy is driving parallel changes in priorities for aid, posing a continuing challenge to donors as they try to channel funds and advice where it is most needed and will do the most good.
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