Sustainable Development Only Possible if Africa Begins to Think for Itself
Africa cannot develop sustainably using economic models and paradigms dictated by Bretton woods institutions or the western academia. These paradigms fundamentally view Africa as the source for cheap raw materials for factories in Europe, America
Africa cannot develop sustainably using economic models and paradigms dictated by Bretton woods institutions or the western academia. These paradigms fundamentally view Africa as the source for cheap raw materials for factories in Europe, America and now China. Africa can only develop sustainably using African paradigms that cater to the interests of Africa.
Contrary to the narrative that presents Africa as a sustainability averse continent requiring external intervention to buy into the SDGs, sustainable development is not alien to Africa. Across many African societies, the concept of sustainability has been part of the cultural ethos of the continent for eons: from the traditional shifting cultivation, to the utilization of renewable sources of fuel for cooking as well as the use of sustainable raw materials for housing; all within the context of a communal support structure that ensured that no member of the community was hungry or behind in basic requirements that made life livable. These African stories must be told by Africans and the wisdom from them gleaned to develop localized solutions to the myriad of development challenges the continent faces.
That said, foreign institutions, no matter how well intentioned, do not have a grid for appropriately planning for the sustainable development of Africa. Neither can American, European or Asian development paradigms fit into the cultural and philosophical milieu of African countries necessary, in our opinion, for sustainability. African intellectuals must be at the forefront of planning and implementing Afrocentric development programs for Africa and Africans.
For instance, IMF and World Bank programs in Africa has had mixed results. Over the past 40 years, from Nigeria to Sudan and from Zimbabwe to Mozambique, programs dictated by Bretton Woods institutions have left Africa poorer , more corrupt and increasingly tied to the apron strings of western donor nations; the very antithesis of sustainable development. In a 2008 essay titled Africa and the Making of Adjustment[1], Howard Stein, development economist and Professor of African studies made some startling revelations:
“Since 1980, the most ubiquitous and consequential set of policies affecting developing countries including those in Africa has been a series of economic reforms sponsored by the World Bank, IMF and other multilateral and bilateral donors. From its inception, these policy measures or structural adjustment packages, sometimes referred to as neoliberalism, assumed that growth and development would arise from the stabilization, liberalization and privatization of economies.” Stein further posits that “the centre of the origins and evolution of adjustment have been developments in Africa. The continent is a Petri dish for the international aid community. New aid modalities based on largely erroneous theoretical assumptions have been introduced with little regard to the consequences to the local populations. In particular, pressures from social and economic crises in Africa were salient in the original formulation of adjustment.”
Pointing that the adjustments proposed by the Bretton Woods institutions across Africa in the 1980s were a massive failure, Professor Stein further opined these failures “were critical to the introduction of new forms of conditionality that could be used to explain the “exceptionalism” of the continent without challenging the basic premises of adjustment. The inability to raise the standard of living for most Africans led to the “rediscovery” of poverty reduction by the World Bank.”
Another misleading narrative about Africa portrays the continent as ridden with debt, disease and deprivation. What is carefully left out of this narrative is the reality that human and material resources from the continent have fueled the development of other continents for hundreds of years. There is increasing evidence that the narrative pushed by foreign media agencies support an exploitative agenda aimed at keeping Africa as a mere supplier of cheap raw materials for the rest of the world.
A poignant report published by ‘Global Justice Now’ titled Honest Accounts 2017– How the world profits from Africa’s wealth bares it all: “Africa is rich – in potential mineral wealth, skilled workers, booming new businesses and biodiversity. Its people should thrive, its economies prosper. Yet many people living in Africa’s 47 countries remain trapped in poverty, while much of the continent’s wealth is being extracted by those outside it. Research for this report calculates the movement of financial resources into and out of Africa and some key costs imposed on Africa by the rest of the world. We find that the countries of Africa are collectively net creditors to the rest of the world, to the tune of $41.3 billion in 2015. Thus much more wealth is leaving the world’s most impoverished continent than is entering it. African countries received $161.6 billion in 2015 – mainly in loans, personal remittances and aid in the form of grants. Yet $203 billion was taken from Africa, either directly – mainly through corporations repatriating profits and by illegally moving money out of the continent – or by costs imposed by the rest of the world through climate change.” It continues: “There are other ways in which the rest of the world extracts resources from Africa, but for which figures are not available; for example, trade policies mean that unprocessed agricultural goods are often exported from African countries and refined elsewhere, causing the vast majority of their value to be earned abroad. The figures show that the rest of the world is profiting from the continent’s wealth – more so than most African citizens. Yet rich country governments simply tell their publics that their aid programmes are helping Africa. This is a distraction, and misleading.”[3]
The publishers of Honest Accounts confessed to difficulties arriving at the true number of African countries in their report, pointing to a pervasive narrative (not theirs) that balkanizes rather than unifies the continents 54 countries. From North to South and from East to West, Africa must seek and promote unity. It is critical that the continent faces common development challenges from a common front; the economies of scale from coming together will help rather than hurt sustainable development.
To achieve sustainable development, African governments must migrate from a ‘royalty collectors’ economic paradigm to one of value creation and capturing. This is necessary to solve the endemic problem of capital flight that continues to impoverish the continent. Sustainable development that meets the aspirations of Africa must include value retention, away from mere exportation of raw materials.
Ivory Coast and Ghana produce about two-thirds of global cocoa but farmers in these countries retain less than 6% of the $100 billion global chocolate industry[4]. While poor African farmers do the hard work, commodity prices are set by cartels outside the continent to the disadvantage of poor African farmers. Furthermore, Africa has huge deposits of lithium, graphite, cobalt and manganese, the raw material needed to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Why shouldn’t Africa domesticate the production of batteries for the African market?
Africa must refuse to remain the Petri dish for testing the latest economic theories. It appears that the only beneficiaries of the policies foisted upon Africa by the Bretton Woods institutions are the foreign governments and commercial institutions that they represent. Africa has become poorer by these policies, and must wean itself from ‘pretend’ aid dependency. Pretend because the facts point to an Africa that is impoverished by foreign policy. The African Journal for Sustainable Development believes that Africa has what it takes to achieve the sustainable development goals if policies that promote true Afrocentric development of the continent are front and center of development planning and implementation. We promote Afrocentric thinking; using local resources for the sustainable development of Africa.
In the eternal words of Nick Dearden, director of UK campaign organization Global Justice Now, “Africa is rich, but we steal its wealth”…We are not currently, “helping” Africa. Africa is rich. Let’s stop making it poorer.”[5] In our own words; let Africans, supported by genuine friends of Africa, use African resources for the sustainable development of Africa!
[1] Africa and the making of adjustment – How economists hijacked the banks agenda; Howard Stein, brettonwoodsproject.org, 29 September 2008
[2] Honest Reports – How the world profits from Africa’s wealth, 2017
[3] https://www.ntu.edu.sg/cas/news-events/news/details/major-gold-deposits-discovered-in-uganda
[4] https://www.africanews.com/2022/10/27/ghana-ivory-coast-boycott-cocoa-meeting-in-brussels-over-farmers-pay//
[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2017/5/24/africa-is-not-poor-we-are-stealing-its-wealth