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African economies 'in reverse'

Sub-Saharan Africa economies are worse off now than in the colonial era

The World Bank report, called Can Africa Claim The Twenty-first Century?, says major structural changes are needed if Africa is to catch up with the rest of the world.

Even just to maintain current levels of poverty, African economies will have to grow by 5% because of rapidly growing populations.

....African countries are worse off now than they were at independence in the 1960s

But, the report says Africa has "enormous untapped potential and hidden growth reserves", if it can mobilise its human resources and improve its political systems.

Years of neglect

In the last 40 years, average incomes per person in Africa have stagnated while they have grown in most of the rest of the world. Africa now accounts for only 1% of the total world economic output and 2% of world trade. On average, African countries have economies smaller than a town of 60,000 people in a rich country. And infrastructure is far less developed as well.

With only 10m telephone lines, half of them in South Africa, there is little chance of most Africans gaining access to the internet. Africa has fewer roads than Poland, only 16% of which are paved, and only one in five households has access to electricity. Two-thirds of rural Africans lack adequate water supplies, while three quarters lack adequate sanitation.

Investment in human capital

The World Bank also points out that Africa is under-utilising its human capital, particularly its women. The average schooling for African women has increased by only 1.2 years

Africa now accounts for only 1% of the total world economic output and 2% of world trade

in the last 40 years, the lowest gain anywhere in the world. Instead, women typically work longer hours than men, collecting water and firewood, and lack access to credit, land, or educational resources. Africa's human resources are also being decimated by disease, with Aids infection rates reaching 25% in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

And decades of civil war and conflict, which have affected at least 20 of sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries, have increased poverty and violence. The political system, even where there are elections, is generally based on a winner-take-all system that is not sufficiently inclusive of Africa's diverse ethnic groups. "Political changes .. would do much to empower people and communities and help energise the development process," the report says

Debt burden

Africa is the world's most indebted and aid-dependent region, with 17% of GDP flowing out in debt repayments, three times what the Bank believes is a sustainable level. But foreign donors are reluctant to give more control to corrupt and

The political system, even where there are elections, is generally based on a winner-take-all system

ineffective governments, and are insisting on strict conditions in return for debt forgiveness.

"Resolving the dilemma posed by aid dependence requires a radical rethinking of the relationships among Africa's civil society, governments, and donors," the World Bank says. It has favoured giving more grants directly to non-governmental organisations who have roots in their communities, effectively by-passing those governments.

The report calls for four key steps to improve Africa's economic prospects:

• Better government and fewer wars
• More investment in people
• Diversification of the economy
• More aid from rich countries

The report comes at a sensitive time for the World Bank, which has been under attack from rightwing critics in the United States who would like to cut its funding radically. They argue that the Bank has had little effect on poverty reduction, and in some cases actually helped corrupt governments stay in power.

The new report was produced in conjunction with the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank - ironically, one of the organisations that some argue should replace the World Bank.

The original article appeared on the BBC website 31/05/2000

Last 25 Visitor Comments
Name	Email	Subject	Date
Grant Hatlen	ghatlen_at_yahoo.co.uk	Grant Hatlen	5/7/2008
Grant Hatlen is a fraud and a con artist, he has scammed people all over the world, South Africa, Mauritius, DRC, Namibia, Pakistan and the UK. He pretends to be a Financial Specialist and High Flying Commodity Trader in Africa. He has taken Millions from people pretending that he will raise funds for their projects and make them part of his projects only to disappear when his schemes doesn’t work. There are fraud charges against him in Mauritius and in South Africa, be careful of this con artist!!!
david	david.mills49_at_yahoo.com	Grant Hatlen	4/30/2008
Grant Hatlen is a fraud and a con artist, he has scammed people all over the world, South Africa, Mauritius, DRC, Namibia, Pakistan and the UK. He pretends to be a Financial Specialist and High Flying Commodity Trader in Africa. He has taken Millions from people pretending that he will raise funds for their projects and make them part of his projects only to disappear when his schemes doesn’t work. There are fraud charges against him in Mauritius and in South Africa, be careful of this con artist!!!
rvsym uzlm	gushtryz_at_mail.com	optcjbqsx ruedz	1/2/2008
muptfckel dvrkhng eapizku uvaieb whpinxz oyfqk tmhvb
mukasa joseph	mojzek_at_yahoo.co.uk	africa economy	2/15/2005
i would like to learn about uganda's economy.and iam student at kampala university first year in B.P.A my home address is. po box 71639 clock-tower kampala
grant hatlen	globalafrica_at_netsollutions.co.za	Africa Economy - a fiscal solution	10/23/2004
I am a PhD Grad, and am updating my thesis; any contributions on the 54 African economies, their collateral asset yield and the opportunities to convert in ground assets to liquid capital through structured financing and channelling mediums is my speciality. If you have any contributors who would wish to communicate with me, I would be interested to here different points of view.

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