Good Growth and Governance in Africa: Rethinking Development Strategies
Abstract
Why has the economic growth performance of Sub-Saharan Africa overall been so disappointing over the past fifty years? More importantly, what can be done to sustain and improve upon the accelerated growth experienced in recent years? What are the possibilities and policies for Africa to achieve sustained, rapid economic growth, poverty reduction, and begin to catch up? What are the lessons of success in both Africa and elsewhere? Could some of the policies that proved so successful in East Asia help reverse the de-industrialization of Africa in the past three decades and be the basis of its structural transformation? These were the questions posed to a diverse group of experts on development convened by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD). This volume reflects the highlights of their deliberations. It broadens the policy debate, expands the policy options and proposes alternative development strategies. This book captures the lively, and sometimes contentious, debate, but in the end, it provides a note of optimism for the future of a subcontinent whose economic experience has been so disappointing. Neither geography nor governance present an insurmountable obstacle in much of Africa, but the dominant governance agenda needs to be radically overhauled. Though success is not assured, there is good reason to believe that policies based on lessons of successes, notably in East Asia, can be adapted successfully in African contexts. And indeed, there are already a few notable successes, and more are in the offing.
... The industrial policy debates and practices have experienced ups and downs over time, from overall consensus on its merits during the mercantilism phase in the 16th to 18th centuries and the period of structuralism of import-substitution strategy in the 1950s and 1970s, to outright rejection in the 1980s and 1990s of neo-liberal prescriptions (Altenburg, 2011). More recently, the failure of the neoliberal alternative in developing countries coupled with the East Asian countries" late industrialization successes, has brought the industrial policy back into the development agenda (Lin, 2012;Noman and Stiglitz, 2012;Lin and Monga, 2013). The 2008 global financial crises in the developed countries, mainly caused by the laissez-faire policies also contributed to the revitalization of the industrial policy (Wade, 2015). ...
... To that end, they engaged in heavy and capital-intensive industries in the 1950s and 1960s based on the importsubstitution strategies of structuralism. However, the strategy failed to achieve sustained growth, while it consumed limited domestic resources and increased foreign debt, thereby significantly affecting the long-term development of the countries (Lin, 2012, Noman andStiglitz, 2012). ...
... Privatization, liberalization, and deregulation were among the "Washington Consensus" prescriptions implemented in Africa and other developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, none of the prescriptions were successful in achieving sustained and long-term economic development in most of the developing countries (Rodrik, 2008;Noman and Stiglitz;2012;Linand Monga, 2013;Wade, 1990). Most of the SSA countries" economies have not shown any structural transformations from low productivity sectors to higher ones. ...
This study deals with industrial policy, an issue that has been hotly debated in economic development. It argues that strategic and proactive industrial policy is a key to unlock the potential and wade through industrialization for low-income countries such as Ethiopia where market failures are pervasive. More specifically, it argues that industrial policy should be tailored to factors endowment structure. In the case of Ethiopia, as its economic structure is yet to transform substantially from agriculture to manufacturing, the current policy focus should be on labor-intensive sectors. Using the analytical framework of new structural economics supported with the primary survey data covering 80 manufacturing firms and secondary data sources, a comprehensive analysis has been conducted to explore the potentials, latecomer’s advantages, and the binding constraints of labor-intensive manufacturing industries in Ethiopia. Accordingly, it proposes five policy domains to unlock the labor-intensive manufacturing potentials of Ethiopia: Facilitating the linkage between agriculture and manufacturing industry along the value chain; fostering industrial park and cluster-based industrial development; strengthening the cooperation between government and the private sector; improving doing business environment; enhancing the industrial upgrading and diversification along with the changing endowment structure.
... While the DS literature has been widely used to address the development challenges of industrialising economies in the global South (Bagchi, 2000;Chang, 2007;Chibber, 2002;Edigheji, 2010;Evans, 2010;Jayasuriya, 2001;Kohli, 2006;Leftwich, 1995Leftwich, , 2000Mkandawire, 2001;Noman, Botchwey, Stein & Stiglitz, 2011;Rodrik, Subramanian & Trebbi, 2004;Swilling, 2008;Swilling, Musango & Wakeford, 2015;Thompson, n.d.), this literature has generally neglected to deal with environmental challenges in general and STs in particular. The ST literature generally has ignored development (with exceptions such as Scoones, Leach and Newell, 2015;Swilling and Annecke, 2012;), but there is an emerging literature 2 This definition fuses together various strands in development studies, including Sen's capability perspective, the writing on wellbeing, traditional concerns with structure in development economics, and ecological and institutional sustainability thinking. ...
... This chapter builds on these works, the ST literature on East Asia plus my previous work on synthesising development, institutional and ecological economics to theorise the 'greening' of the developmental; Swilling, Musango & Wakeford, 2016). The resultant synthesis is then brought into conversation with the debates about the African developmental state, in particular, the contributions in a volume edited by Noman et al. (2011). ...
... The defining feature of DSs is that they are primarily concerned with the structural transformation of modernising economies (Evans, 1995;Kohli, 2006;Noman et al., 2011). The legitimation of DSs is derived primarily from their ability to promote sustained growth and development via aggressive industrialisation (Chibber, 2002). ...
... In the smallholder logic, farming is indistinguishable from the rural way of life. This is consistent with a cash-based flea market economy in the agricultural sector and is thus plagued with numerous governance problems (Noman et al., 2012). Informal market transactions with traders or village markets governed by indigenous institutions prevail as the dominant distribution mechanism for small-scale producers in Africa (Fafchamps, 2004). ...
... For instance, instead of using verified seeds and inorganic fertilizers, smallholders continue to follow the custom of relying on recycled seeds and manure. Consequently, the smallholder logic is characterized by produce heterogeneity, inconsistency of produce quality, personalized trading relationships, and lack of standardization (Fafchamps, 2004;Noman et al., 2012). ...
In this paper, we describe how changes in the availability of information artifacts— in particular, information and communication technologies (ICTs)—among smallholder farmers in Ghana, led to a process of hybridization of information practices, and how this process could be linked to underlying institutional change. We use the notions of institutional carriers and activity systems to study the evolution of the prevailing “smallholder” institutional logic of Ghanaian agriculture toward an incoming “value-chain” institutional logic concerned with linking farmers to output markets, improving the knowledge base in agriculture, and increasing its information intensity. We draw on a mixed-methods approach, including in-depth qualitative interviews, focus groups, observations, and detailed secondary quantitative data. We cultivate activity theory as a practice-based lens for structuring inquiry into institutional change. We find that information artifacts served to link the activities of farmers that were embedded in the smallholder logic with those of agricultural-development actors that promoted the value-chain logic. Hybridization occurred through the use of artifacts with different interaction modalities. In terms of conceptualizing change, our findings suggest that hybridization of the two logics may be an intermediary point in the long transition from the smallholder toward the value-chain logic.
... A developmental state cannot, of course be imposed from outside; it has to emerge from the political economy of a country. Avoiding the anti-growth syndrome that consists of some combination of (1) excessive regulation; (2) inappropriate redistributive policies; and (3) state failure is necessary condition for growth and sufficient for alleviating poverty [24]. The authors go on to say that African governments need to play a role in all markets by creating the rules of the game that allow markets to function, including a legal system that enforces property rights and contracts, and ensuring competition and regulating financial markets. ...
... The inadequacy of governance capabilities is to be a major cause of poor economic performance and transformation of Africa [24]. The growth-enhancing governance becomes necessary for the region to achieve, sustained, rapid, poverty-reduction growth. ...
This paper analyzes the fundamental causes of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. It defines poverty and types of poverty, distinguishes between the proximate and fundamental causes of poverty, describes the vicious circle of poverty, reports poverty statistics in developing world,explains the role of government, and discusses the developmental state and growth-enhancing governance. The paper argues that pro-poor flawed policies, weak economic and political institutions, and culture may be the fundamental causes of poverty in the region.Transforming or building economic policies and institutions that aim at stimulating growth of labor income and inclusive economic growth in taking the human factors into account may improve welfare where extreme poverty is pervasive.
... It has also been noted that resources such as funds to train beneficiaries to be independent are limited (Lopes, 2017). Despite the provision of the programme, it is evident that if the programmes are not accredited, then it is just a waste of time as the level of skills training provided does not conform to the identified skills shortage in the economy (Noman, Botchwey, Stein & Stiglitz, 2012). The researchers also noted that monitoring and evaluation is also poor. ...
Labour markets across the world have in recent years been characterised by instability and scare employment opportunities. Despite the fact that the 21st century has carried with it massive technological change and a rise in the significance of education for better employment prospects, it has moreover brought about expanded vulnerability which has neglected to ensure employment for work-searchers. For those who want to work, the inability to find employment has been a source of enormous adversities both personally and economically. This is not unique to South Africa as the country is plagued with very high unemployment rates across all age categories and continually rising numbers of discouraged work-seekers. Although unemployment indicators have to a great extent followed international standards, the failure to incorporate those who have abstained from searching has inadvertently contributed to a lack of understanding regarding the nature of discouragement in the labour market. Keywords: Employment, discouragement; work-seekers, labour markets, South Africa, unemployment.
... For a discussion of this point in the context of Africa, seeNoman and Stiglitz (2012b) and the other papers inNoman et al. (2012).12 As I argue inStiglitz (forthcoming, 2019), there cannot by an effective systemic system of checks and balances in a world of excessive inequality: almost inevitably, those at the top will ensure that the political system serves their interests. ...
... Investment in education focused on primary schools-at best improving the ability of these countries to produce basic commodities, but not helping them move into the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first. Nothing was done to really close the knowledge gap that separated them from the more advanced countries (Noman and Stiglitz 2012a, 2015aNoman et al. 2012). ...
... Kober highlighted that Iranian young do not see a future for themselves in their country and seek opportunities elsewhere and the outflow of talented people to foreign countries, especially to American universities, has brought many challenges for the development of S&T; rather than international sanctions for Iran's leaders [49][50][51]. ...
These papers present the push and pull policies as two sides of the same coin and these become the force that drives and encourages the outflow of talent towards a goal. Like many developing countries, Iran has suffered from the phenomenon. The main objectives of this study are examined the key policy factors in cultural, economic and political conditions that contribute to Iranian talented people migration. The principal aim of this study is to propose ideas that can contribute to specific changes in public policies, to curb further outflow and may encourage Iranian expatriates to return to their homeland. This study, however, examines in depth the policy interventions related to the migration of talented Iranians. Interviews were conducted on educated talented Iranians living in six industrialized advanced nations to obtain their views on reasons for their migration. A predominant theme emerging from the study is that unfavorable political conditions have been the key reason for the migration of talented Iranians from their homeland.
... In our paper, we attempt nothing more and nothing less than to develop an Index of Civil society in the framework of the larger necessary debates about Inglehart's approach (2018), which works with the following scales and data: The results of our empirical survey show that on this front, there is room for optimism and hope for the coming decades for Africa. African economic development in some countries has decidedly shifted away from the "lost continent" image and the debate has increasingly featured such factors as good governance as decisive for Africa's future trajectory in world society (Noman, 2012;Pieper, Mkandawire and van der Hoeven, 2016). Figures and maps that several countries in Africa are rapidly moving forward in economic and also in human rights terms now abound; it suffices here to mention the data work of Freedom House (2018). ...
This paper attempts to close a gap in the recent literature on African economic development: the place of Africa on the maps of global economic, political and social values. We develop new comparable indices of global value development from the latest set of World Values Survey data and determine Africa’s place on a new factor analytical index of Global Civil Society.
Our statistical calculations were performed by the routine and standard SPSS statistical program (SPSS XXIV), available at many academic research centers around the world and relied on the so-called oblique rotation of the factors, underlying the correlation matrix. The SPSS routine chosen in this context was the so-called promax rotation of factors, which in many ways must be considered to be the best suited rotation of factors in the context of our research.
Our analysis of the World Values Survey data derived the following factor analytical scales, well compatible with a large social scientific literature:
1. The non-violent and law-abiding society
2. Democracy movement
3. Climate of personal non-violence
4. Trust in institutions
5. Happiness, good health
6. No redistributive religious fundamentalism
7. Accepting the market
8. Feminism
9. Involvement in politics
10. Optimism and engagement
11. No welfare mentality, acceptancy of the Calvinist work ethics
The spread in the performance of African countries with complete data is really amazing. While we are especially hopeful about the development of future democracy in Ghana, our article suggests pessimistic tendencies for Egypt and Algeria, and especially for Africa’s leading economy, South Africa. High Human Inequality, as measured by the UNDP’s Human Development Report’s Index of Human Inequality, further impairs the development of Human Security.
One can maintain that the certain recent optimism, corresponding to economic and human rights data, emerging from Africa, is reflected also in our Index of the Development of Civil Society. There is at least some hope for Africa, on this front, too.
JEL Classification Numbers: C43, F5, Z12, D73
Keywords: C43 - Index Numbers and Aggregation; F5 - International Relations
and International Political Economy; Z12 – Religion; D73 - Bureaucracy;
Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
... It bears emphasis again, however, that there are those trained in the neoclassical tradition who reject the crude application of standard neoclassical assumptions to the analysis of actually existing economies. In the development field, those analysts trained within the neo-classical tradition but who are critical of it aver that to promote inclusive development, states need to develop the capacities to strategically manipulate prices and rents and use selective incentives to achieve desired results across a variety of sectors and fields (Khan and Jomo 2000;Khan 2012). They accept that states can and sometimes should play a central coordinating and even interventionist role. ...
I've recent posted an author's copy (PDF format) of a chapter from my book, Welfare and Inequality in Marketizing East Asia. This particular chapter addresses contemporary debates on "inclusive growth" from multiple perspectives in political economy.
... This "top down" approach was coherent with the approach taken to define the MDG goals and targets. 14 This approach led to a list of 13 To name only a few, see for example Robinson (2005 and; North et al. (2009 and; and for Africa more specifically, Noman et al. (2012). Further, regarding peace and security, even if some studies argue that post-conflict reconstruction phases can make institutions more solid (Cramer, 2009), most research has empirically shown the negative impact of conflicts on development and notably the existence of "conflict traps" (World Bank, 2011). ...
This article provides some elements for reflection on an apparent paradox. On the one hand, Africa appears to be the continent most riddled by problems related to governance and conflict ; on the other hand, it is at the forefront in both promoting the issue of governance at the international level and in implementing its statistical measurement, an observation that has gone largely unnoticed until now. Will Africa manage to maintain its lead following the adoption by all countries of Sustainable Development Goal 16 on governance, peace and security, to which the continent contributed greatly ?
... It bears emphasis again, however, that there are those trained in the neoclassical tradition who reject the crude application of standard neoclassical assumptions to the analysis of actually existing economies. In the development field, those analysts trained within the neo-classical tradition but who are critical of it aver that to promote inclusive development, states need to develop the capacities to strategically manipulate prices and rents and use selective incentives to achieve desired results across a variety of sectors and fields (Khan and Jomo 2000;Khan 2012). They accept that states can and sometimes should play a central coordinating and even interventionist role. ...
One of the most intriguing features of marketization has been the parallel development of a large-scale global policy agenda centered on social protection and inclusive growth. Promoted by international development agencies and their local clients, embraced by large numbers of development economists, viewed with suspicion by critics of markets and capitalism, and greeted with intrigue by theorists of state performance, the social protection and inclusive growth agendas have taken the notoriously fad-prone development field by storm. In East Asia, the social protection and inclusive growth literature and policy agenda have energized efforts to promote marketization and market-friendly policy sets, in part because they have managed to hitch the proverbial wagons of poverty reduction and equity to an agenda of liberalizing marketization. And yet the political and developmental logics of social protection and inclusive growth have meant different things to different people in different places. That the social protection and inclusive growth agendas have been welcomed by state and business elites reflects the malleability of its rhetorical content. In some instances the social protection and inclusive growth agendas have appeared to resonate with concerns emanating from civil society, whereas in other instances national and local elites have used the rhetoric of inclusivity to advance particularist interests. This chapter explores the emergence and meaning of the social protection and inclusive growth agendas in marketizing East Asia in relation to the political economy of welfare, inequality, and social transformation.
... 6. The research resulted in the publishing of a book, which was brought out by Oxford University Press ( Noman et al. 2012), titled "Good Growth and Governance in Africa: Rethinking Development Strategies." 7. This book addressed the following important questions: Why has the overall economic growth performance of Africa been disappointing during the past 50 years? ...
... The justiªcation for aid is that, while the free market is beneªcial, aid can accelerate growth and development beyond what would occur under a completely laissez-faire regime, particularly when countries are caught in poverty and other traps (Collier, 2007;Sachs, 2008). In contrast, structuralists argue for the need to regulate international ºows to allow for infant industry protection, endogenous technological development, and a reduction of surplus extraction through overseas debt repayments, for example (Noman, Botchwey, Stein, & Stiglitz, 2012). These two approaches are characterized heuristically in Figure 1. ...
Many claims are made about the transformational developmental impacts of new ICTs, particularly mobile phones, on Africa. However, such claims neglect other structural dynamics and the contradictory impacts of mobile phones, which can reduce, but also sometimes increase, poverty. This paper re-examines the role of mobile phones in African development and poverty, drawing on the concept of articulation. While mobile phones are meant to help "ºatten" the world and allow for economic development through facili-tating connection between places, they often serve to reinforce the dynamics of uneven development. Consequently, while mobile phones may be "socially articulating," they recreate (new) forms of economic disarticulation, thereby replicating patterns of Africa's adverse inclusion in the global economy. The occlusion of these dynamics in the literature arguably serves a useful ideologi-cal function: positing the mobile phone as a technical ªx for what are primar-ily problems of power maldistribution. The impact of these developments in ICT in Africa, in terms of both ICT development (increased infrastructure and access) and ICT for develop-ment (adoption of ICT applications), has been to advance the process of development itself, in terms of ICT for development. The result of this duality of sector transformation has, itself, been dually vast. On the one hand, it has facilitated the delivery of services, such as education, health, better governance (on the parts of both the leadership and the governed), enterprise, and business development, as well as their over-all contribution to socioeconomic well-being (especially poverty reduc-tion), political stability, and self-actualization (Okpaku, 2006, p. 153).
The main objective of this chapter is to obtain insights into how crucial factors for industrial development interact in practice, focusing on five outstanding cases of what we call “industrial strategy” that resulted in a remarkable economic transformation in a country or in regions of a country. These five cases are: (1) the automobile industry in Thailand; (2) the transformation of the “Cerrado” in Brazil from barren lands to a source of high productivity agriculture; (3) the garment industry in Bangladesh; (4) the salmon farming and processing industry in Chile; and (5) the upgrading of Singapore’s industrial sector from labor to knowledge-intensive.
Objective: This study aims to determine the effect of good governance indicators (voice and
accountability, political stability without violent, government effectiveness, regulatory quality,
rule of law and control of corruption) and financial reforms (financial liberalization and
financial development) on the total factor productivity in Iran's industry and mining sector from
1996 through 2018.
Methods: In this study, the econometric technique of Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)
is used to estimate the effects of variables.
Results: The results of estimates indicate that the effect of all indicators of financial reform on
total factor productivity is positive in short term and long term. In terms of good governance
indicators, we see a positive relationship with variables of government effectiveness and
regulatory quality, and a negative relationship with corruption control variables. Also, the effect
of variables of voice and accountability and the rule of law are negative in short term and are
positive in long term. Political stability without violent also has no effect on total factor
productivity.
Policies to move African economies from growth to transformation are urgently needed, but are they feasible, given typical political-economic constraints? Drawing on a multidisciplinary literature, this paper warns against the twin errors of ignoring such constraints and treating them as insuperable. There is no doubt that typical patterns of power and interest undermine the credible commitments, adequate public good provision, investment coordination, and provisions for joint learning that are crucial in economic transformation. Moreover, efforts to tackle poor economic governance comprehensively have generally failed. However, history tells us that successful economic transformation occurs in steps and is often achieved by targeted measures and focused institutional improvements in priority areas, with a good deal of context-sensitive trial and error. What is needed is a politically smart approach to the conditions for economic transformation, one that is based conceptually on the form/function distinction, empirically on the growing body of fine-grained case studies of experience at sector level, and a problem-driven learning approach to policy implementation.
With transitions to more sustainable ways of living already underway, this book examines how we understand the underlying dynamics of the transitions that are unfolding. Without this understanding, we enter the future in a state of informed bewilderment.
Every day we are bombarded by reports about ecosystem breakdown, social conflict, economic stagnation and a crisis of identity. There is mounting evidence that deeper transitions are underway that suggest we may be entering another period of great transformation equal in significance to the agricultural revolution some 13,000 years ago or the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. This book helps readers make sense of our global crisis and the dynamics of transition that could result in a shift from the industrial epoch that we live in now to a more sustainable and equitable age. The global renewable energy transition that is already underway holds the key to the wider just transition. However, the evolutionary potential of the present also manifests in the mushrooming of ecocultures, new urban visions, sustainability-oriented developmental states and new ways of learning and researching.
Shedding light on the highly complex challenge of a sustainable and just transition, this book is essential reading for anyone concerned with establishing a more sustainable and equitable world. Ultimately, this is a book about hope but without easy answers.
After being among the earliest countries to embark on the East Asian path, Pakistan fell away but was still among the ten fastest growing economies of the world during 1960–90. However, the seeds for the subsequent economic and technological malaise were also sown in that period. This paper provides an overview of recent theoretical and empirical work on industrial policies – more accurately labeled learning, industrial and technology (LIT) policies – and examines their implications for Pakistan. These include a selective, more sharply focused approach than the comprehensive agendas of reforms that have become common. Substantial islands of success with industrial policies have emerged in a variety of institutional and governance settings, different from those of the original East Asian developmental states. They offer valuable lessons. Raising the abysmally low level of investment in Pakistan is a requirement as well as an outcome and an instrument of industrial policies. This argues for a revival of development finance to stimulate investment as well as to direct it towards selective targets. How to mitigate the risks of this and other instruments of industrial policy to get the risk–reward ratio right is another concern of the paper. An important target of such policies should be the technological upgrading of existing industries. There is enormous scope for doing so, with international comparisons suggesting that Pakistani manufacturing does poorly – both in terms of variance in productivity between firms within an industry as well as in introducing new technologies and products. Whilst the constraints of the politics–governance–security/terrorism nexus are beyond the scope of the paper, their salience cannot be underestimated.
This briefing revisits the ‘Africa rising’ narrative. It makes two arguments. First, the ‘Africa rising’ narrative at best sits on a shaky foundation. African economies may have registered modest growth in recent years but the growth is either superficial or not happening in the sectors that matter the most. Second, the rather rosy picture of a rising Africa masks the continent’s continued marginal position in the global capitalist structures of power, domination and exploitation.
The Rwandan government — widely lauded for its political commitment to development — has refocused its efforts on reviving growth in the manufacturing sector. This article examines how pressures from different levels — international, regional and domestic — have shaped the evolving political economy of two priority sectors (apparel and cement). To achieve its goals of manufacturing sector growth, the Rwandan government aims to access foreign markets (on preferential terms) and larger regional markets while developing effective state–business relationships with locally based firms. Despite the government's political commitment to reviving its manufacturing sector, its strategy has been both shaped and impeded by shifting pressures at the international level (through Rwanda's recent suspension from the African Growth and Opportunity Act), the regional level (through competition from regional firms) and the domestic level (through over‐reliance on single firms). Within the current industrial policy literature, there is limited reflection on how developing countries are dealing with the multi‐scalar challenges of enacting industrial policy in a much‐changed global trading environment. This article contributes to the industrial policy literature by addressing this lacuna.
The ‘East Asian developmental state’ has been for some time a source of interest and inspiration to different regimes and leaders in different parts of the developing world. In Malaysia for example, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (1981–2003) constructed a variant of the so-called ‘East Asian developmental state’ to drive an ambitious program of economic transformation. In Ethiopia too, former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (1991–2012) attempted to implement economic policies along a similar state-guided trajectory of development
国際開発研究 Vol. 27 (2)
Journal of International Development Studies. Vol. 27 (2)
Published article is available from the following HP for free.
https://www.jasid.org/uploads/ckfinder/files/JASID-27-2.pdf
Following a period of strong growth across all developing regions during the first decade of the millennium and a rapid rebound from the 2008 financial crisis, a combination of falling commodity prices, increasing financial market volatility and weak global demand has negatively affected growth performance in recent years. This growth slowdown has exposed the absence of structural transformation in many developing countries even under robust growth conditions. As a result, increasing attention has turned to the trade and industrialization opportunities offered by participation in global value chains (GVCs). However, while the evidence suggests a positive association between participation in GVCs and increased exports and inward FDI flows, evidence on their supporting structural transformation is weak. This paper discusses strategic approaches to participation in GVCs as part of a broader development agenda. In particular, it focuses on the opportunities offered by regional value chains (RVCs) and South‐South cooperation and examines the role of industrial policy, with reference to the case of Southern Africa. Active cooperation among governments to identify and prioritize entry points into value chains and exploit regional complementarities is of crucial importance.
This paper examines how development actors within the Ghanaian agricultural sector enact information and communication technology (ICT) in their day‐to‐day outreach practices with smallholder farmers. We draw on an in‐depth qualitative case study, informed by the theoretical perspective of “strategy‐as‐practice” to answer the research question: “what ICT‐mediated strategic practices are used by development actors in the Ghanaian agriculture sector?” The research findings reveal that (1) the activities of development actors are meshed within a network of interdependencies; (2) the enacted strategic practices reflect the trade‐off between novelty of content and novelty of the technologies used to deliver it; and lastly, (3) the praxis of development actors for doing ICT for development consists of hybrid strategies, combining bottom‐up approaches consistent with farmers' indigenous smallholder logic, with top‐down imperatives framing agriculture “as a business” and nurturing value‐chain integration. Consequently, our research points to the impact of ICT initiatives as step‐wise and attained over the long term, rather than disruptive and attained in the immediate term.
This paper critically evaluates ‘one size fits all’ characterisations of African states in the context of diverse change in Africa. It provides an original critique of Frederick Cooper’s gatekeeper states concept based on a novel application of the theory of uneven and combined development. The theory draws attention to the unevenness of development across the international system, the production of multiple, combined forms of state, and points to an expectation of heterogeneity among ‘later developing’ countries, questioning generalised characterisations of ‘African’ states as a sui generis category of state. The paper argues that Frederick Cooper’s concept of the ‘gatekeeper state’ sits close to, though not entirely within, this pattern. This careful application of theory shows that while there are strong synergies between Cooper’s empirical account of state formation and developmental processes highlighted by the theory, there is greater divergence over the question of heterogeneity. The paper argues that uneven and combined development helps to reveal the limits of ‘one-size fits all’ approaches and the potential for a broader theoretical grounding to Cooper’s gatekeeper concept. In doing so it provides an important corrective to donor assumptions of general failings of African states and uniform policy prescriptions with which to address them.
The main objective of the research is to configure the countries of Western Asia from the standpoint of governance with a particular focus on democracy indicator. We are interested in the government indicators because since the times of Washington consensus the foreign aid paradigm has changed: a priority is given to funding development programs in countries with good governance. In order to measure the progress there is the need to quantify differences in governments among nations and to measure its quality. Governance indicators and the Democracy Index as well, are also supposed to help business leaders in strategic decisions. Comparative analysis technique and a concept of correlation are used as a methodology of the research while configuring the countries of Western Asia in terms of democracy. It is verified whether the more democratic countries in the region are the more trustful and prosperous societies. It is debated whether there is the need for democracy so as to reach good governance and economic growth.
In this study, the relationship between institutions and economic performance is theoretically addressed. According to the recent literature, institutions are regarded as the main cause of economic growth differences in countries. According to the literature, good institutions that improve economic welfare can be examined under three headings: the applicability of property rights, the restriction of politicians and other strong groups and the equality of opportunity. In our study, the fundamental characteristics that determine this relationship are examined under the title of property rights, legal system-the rule of law and the government structure and democracy in a broader way. Secondly, if the rule of law is not in question, the rights arising from the independent judiciary shall not work properly and the contract will be unfulfilled.. Investments and growth will be negatively affected by this situation. In the third title, the conclusions of democracy-growth are different. The studies in the literature are at the point where the democracy and the autocracy have more positive results on growth comparatively.
This paper aims to illustrate the importance of disaggregating learning. In Africa, knowledge related to policy formulation, policy implementation, and managerial skills has been neglected. This paper focuses on a project supporting productivity and quality enhancement using kaizen in Ethiopia. The pilot project covered twenty-eight firms in five sectors and showed a remarkable impact in as short a time as six months. During this time, the average benefit for a firm was around 500,000 Ethiopian Birr (30,000 US Dollars) without any additional investment. This was equivalent to almost 75 US Dollars per employee, roughly equal to the average monthly wage of an Ethiopian worker. This paper argues that “managerial” and “policy” learning are important and deserve far more attention than they tend to receive.
This paper aims to analyze the factors that have made the economic growth of Japan inclusive in the post-World War II period. The factors identified in this paper are: (1) the GHQ policy to transition Japan from the old regime to a democratic, non-autocratic and non-military country; (2) inclusive industrial development, especially through productivity movement, transferring the relationship with labor from confrontational to constructive; and (3) social security policy, such as UHC (Universal Health Care), to protect people from poverty and starvation, and to improve living standards. These factors are reflected in Japanese ODA policy on poverty reduction. This paper focuses mainly on inclusive industrial development because this is one aspect that East Asian countries have in common, and a good common ground to consider possible future collaboration among East Asian countries to reduce poverty in the region. For future possible collaboration among Japan, China and South Korea, this paper proposes the " horizontal collaboration " approaches. In horizontal collaboration, each donor will implement projects independently, but in parallel under the coordination of the ADB. The projects could be implemented geographically in any sector. The new programs and projects should be implemented in a " starting from small to grow bigger " approach (or a " gradual " approach). This paper proposes to start from an exchange of ideas, good practices, and history, among staff members of donor agencies. If a project starts, then rigorous impact evaluation should be implemented to scale in the future. The ADB should lead the entire process as a neutral partner of all the East Asian countries and donor agencies.
In December 2013, after news broke that Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and African National Congress (ANC) leader had passed on, something interesting, though not entirely unfamiliar, happened. Within the continent, major commentators and politicians eulogized the departed statesman, emphasized the fortitude he displayed throughout the 27 years he spent in confinement at the mercy of the apartheid regime, and saluted him for his moral courage in forgiving his jailers, even though, as South African president, it was within his power to exact his pound of flesh. Such eulogies usually concluded with a lamentation that Nelson Mandela was the kind of morally substantial and politically intelligent leader that postcolonial African countries have, almost as a rule, been bereft of: a rare golden freckle in a landscape riddled with base metals. Oblivious to the irony, the majority of foreign commentators took the same tack, praising Mandela for his humanism and resoluteness, and invariably using him to highlight the poverty of such high-toned qualities in the ranks of most postcolonial African leaders.
On the question of whether external finance stimulates GDP growth, the profession offers inconclusive as well as frequent contradictory outcomes. While waiting for a robust consensus, this paper addressed directly the mechanisms through which external finance should influence economic growth. Investment was identify as the most significant transmission mechanism, and as well considers effects via funding regime consumption expenditure and import. By employing the residual generated repressors’, we accomplish a measure of the overall influence of external finance on economic growth, accounting for the influence through investment. Based on the pooled panel outcomes, a sample of twenty-five Sub-Saharan Africa economies were examine over the period of 1970–1997; the result indicates that there is a significant and positive effect of overseas assistance on economic growth, ceteris paribus. Based on average, each 1 % point upsurge in the aid/GNP ratio contributes one-quarter of 1 % point to the growth rate. Therefore, the poor economic growth in Africa should not be attributed to external finance ineffectiveness.
In order to develop a constructive new urban agenda (NUA), the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) must move beyond sterile proclamations, and acknowledge what we have learned since previous Habitat meetings – that urban policy significantly influences inclusive economic growth. A new urban agenda that takes new research and understandings into account could be like investments in health in terms of the high rate of return. More than that, changes in urban regulations and in the way subsidies are targeted could allow most of the desired gains to be realized without additional resources. An NUA, in other words, could be like perestroika for cities. Indeed, it could support a “restructuring” that is both more manageable and more fundamental than other, more popular, growth strategies. By examining a number of case studies, the paper demonstrates that a central message of Habitat III should be that better urban policy is much more than just a claim on public resources, it can be an important way to achieve inclusive growth.
Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced great oscillations in democratic progress and retreat. Authoritarian modernization has taken root, notably in Ethiopia and Rwanda. No paradigm captures the complexity and volatility. Some argue that autocratic governance produces development outcomes while competitive clientelism encourages corruption and social distress. Nigeria presents a paradox of reform and dysfunction, of growth and discordant development, of minority affluence and mass poverty. The northern region has undergone economic and political decline. The failure to defeat Boko Haram reflects the prebendalist corrosion of state institutions. The February 2015 election is a dismaying hurdle for the Nigerian system of conglomerate governance.
This study provides a survey of recent advances in the literature on proposed African monetary unions. The survey comprises about 60 empirical papers published during the past fifteen years. Four main strands are discussed individually and collectively, notably, the proposed: West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), East African Monetary Union (EAMU), Southern African Monetary Union (SAMU) and African Monetary Union (AMU). We observe a number of issues with establishing the feasibility and/or desirability of potential monetary unions, inter alia, variations in: choice of variables, empirical strategies, sampled countries and considered periodicities. We address this ambiguity by reviewing studies with scenarios that are consistent with Hegelian dialectics and establish selective expansion as the predominant mode of monetary integration. Some proponents make cases for strong pegs and institutions as viable alternatives to currency unions. Using cluster analysis, disaggregating panels into sub-samples and distinguishing shocks from responses in the examination of business cycle synchronisation provide more subtle policy implications. We caution that for inquiries using the same theoretical underpinnings, variables and methods just by modifying the scope/context and periodicity may only contribute to increasing the number of conflicting findings. Authors should place more emphasis on new perspectives and approaches based on caveats of, and lessons from the European Monetary Union (EMU) and CFA zones.
Internationally driven development programmes have not been entirely successful in transforming the economic status of African countries. Since the late 1990s many African countries have started to take initiatives to develop an integrated framework that tackles poverty and promotes socio-economic development in their respective countries.
This book provides a critical evaluation of ‘homegrown’ development initiatives in Africa, set up as alternatives to externally sponsored development. Focusing specifically on Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, the book takes a qualitative and comparative approach to offer the first ever in-depth analysis of indigenous development programmes. It examines:
◦How far African states have moved towards more homegrown development strategies.
◦The effects of the shift towards African homegrown socio-economic development strategies and the conditions needed to enhance their success and sustainability.
Abstract This article observes that expansion of international trade, particularly exports of appropriate goods, by African economies is important to their growth and development. Unfortunately, Africa’s share of world trade has been decreasing rather than increase. The continent is behind other continents in developmental terms, despite its many resource endowments. Governance deficiencies (broadly defined) are a major cause of the inability of African economies to manage their resources for sustained growth and development. The article looks at the particular consequences of governance deficiencies on trade expansion and goes on to suggest that the deployment of ICT can ameliorate those deficiencies. It focuses on the potential positive impact of e-governance in general, and e-customs in particular, on trade expansion. It argues that e-governance, including e-customs, has the potential to enhance the international competitiveness of African economies, increase revenues for government, and increase FDI inflows for production and exportation. It concludes that while e-customs is not a panacea for Africa’s international trade under-performance, it is an important piece of infrastructure that is relatively easier and cheaper to build, but which has a high beneficial impact on trade expansion. It therefore recommends the implementation of efficient e-customs in African economies that do not yet have such systems.
In 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history met at the United Nations to endorse the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and these goals have received wide-spread attention since then. This paper examines these goals and also considers the larger issue of economic growth and development. For sub-Saharan Africa’s economies to grow, we need to recognize the role and functions of the informal ruling sector and also acknowledge the incentives involved. Equally important perhaps, we need to rethink the development agenda: today that agenda is dictated by and large by the Western donors. In the future that agenda must be driven by the realities of the combination of the mix of informal and formal governing structures. If rulers continue to commit to meeting the objectives at the formal level while at the same time prioritize the demands of the informal sector then they will not be able to escape the poverty trap and underdevelopment nor move toward true, sustained economic and social development for all of their people. At the end of the day, what really matters is not if Africa reaches the Millennium Development Goals, since goals, while important in measuring welfare success, do not really address the more urgent need for stimulating productive and sustained economic growth that in the long term will translate into higher welfare.
In Africa as in Asia, will successful agricultural transformation happen first in countries whose rulers are driven by concerns to avert fundamental rural-based political threats? This article explores this question with reference to Rwanda, where the political incentives are found to be different from those in comparable African countries. Whilst this did not immediately lead to the adoption of an appropriate agricultural strategy, following a major shock and some serious rethinking, policy has now turned a corner and the results are promising. This experience has revealed that the political economy of agricultural policy in Rwanda is distinguished by a capacity for learning from errors as well as a seriousness about implementation that are not widely observed elsewhere in the region.
State construction is messy and complex, brimming with contradictions, fraught with conflict and unpredictability. This article identifies a few hurdles likely to be encountered in the simultaneous making and walking of this road, underscoring (in particular) the need to work with clientelism and patronage as enablers and contributors to growth rather than pathology to be “corrected” by administrative reforms.
Consumers, partnering with corporations and celebrities, are forming new alliances in international development through what we call ‘Brand Aid’ initiatives. At a time of shifting relationships between public and private aid, commodities are sold as the means of achieving development for recipients and good feelings for consumers simultaneously. In this article we first formalise our conceptual model of Brand Aid at the triple interface of causes, branded products and celebrities. Then we conduct a systematic empirical analysis of contemporary Brand Aid initiatives, including three in-depth case studies of ‘Win One Give One’, toms shoes and Product (red). We argue that these not only use imaginaries of development to sell products to Northern consumers but also engage in the work of a ‘story factory’ – producing truths about international development and consumer engagement that make development appear simplified, manageable and marketable. We conclude that, in Brand Aid, the problems themselves and the people who experience them are branded and marketed to Western consumers (through celebritised multimedia story-telling) just as effectively as the products that will ‘save’ them.
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