Development Solutions for Africa: The Need for Policy Reform and Good Governance

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Kempe Ronald Hope

With few exceptions, economic development in the African states has generally been elusive and the people in sub-Saharan Africa remain among the poorest in the world. From 1970 to 1990, GDP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa grew in real terms by only US$80 and the region’s aggregate GNP per capita was only US$340 in 1990. In terms of annual percentage change, the region registered a 1.8 percent annual growth from 1970-77, an annual decline of 3.0 percent from 1978-84, and an annual increase of 2.4 percent from 1985-90. However, for the entire period of 1970-90, growth was statistically insignificant. During the period 1980-92 the annual growth rate of GNP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa was recorded as -1.83.

1988 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Knight

South Africa has neither a developed nor a typical underdeveloped economy. Too often it has been wrongly classified, along with, say, Australia and New Zealand, as one of the peripheral developed countries, because only a part of the economy and population have the characteristics we associate with that group. Yet its economy is distinctly different from others in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa falls squarely into the category which the World Bank classifies as ‘upper middle-income’ developing economies, with G.N.P. per capita in 1982 ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 and averaging $2,500, thereby including South Africa, with $2,700.1 (By contrast, Kenya's G.N.P. per capita was $400 and Britain's $10,000). The World Bank's group includes Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, South Korea, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. South Africa shares many structural economic characteristics with these semi-industrialised countries.


Author(s):  
G. Onu

The 20th and 21st centuries have witnessed major paradigm shifts in the conceptualization of development and governance. These phenomena are aided and propelled by a new “network intelligence” consummated in the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT). The world has also witnessed a reinvention of the whole process of governance that has impacted society in various ways. Through the Internet and digital connectivity, today’s world has come to be closer than ever before. Efficiency and processes of governance have been improved through faster information flow in the governance chain. Bottlenecks and cost of labor have been reduced across the world. Furthermore, ICT has opened new possibilities, improved transparency and access to information as well as partnership and collaboration, leading to improved relationships between the citizen and state. While Europe and North America, as well as some countries of Asia and the pacific, have taken advantage of this development to improve their economies and governance process, Ningo (1999) observes that sub-Saharan Africa has remained either passive or in the periphery, often reduced to a consumer for reasons related to its history or its system of governance—or lack of one. This has led to a yawning digital divide (especially between Africa and developed states of the world. What led to this divide and how can Africa, then, benefit from this revolution? What are the obstacles?


Author(s):  
Tarh, Jacqueline Ebob

Cholera is still a problem in the world today. A huge population of deaths due to cholera disease still occur in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria most especially), Asia, the Americas and other developing countries, where approximately 1.7 billion inhabitants are still served by faecally polluted water sources. Approximately, 2.4 billion inhabitants of these areas of the world lack the majorly required sanitary conditions of living. Legros, asserts that, as of 2019, about forty-seven countries of the globe, are still affected by cholera. Raw or undercooked, contaminated seafood, serves as a vehicle for the transmission (especially to non-endemic areas). A Case Fatality Rate of 4.87% was recorded from 34 Local Government Areas of Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano and Zamfara state in Nigeria by the 34th week, in 2018, while 298 confirmed cases and 38 deaths (CFR 1.5%) were recorded from three Local Government Areas in two States (Adamawa & Borno) by Epidemiological week 41 in 2019. Cholera in some cases is regarded as a “disease of the poor” because the populations most affected are those that cannot afford to provide the basic health facilities for themselves. For example, waste management systems, and good accommodation with toilet facilities (the living and health conditions of the people) are wanting. In 2017, A Global Roadmap to 2030 was launched by the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC Ending Cholera) to decrease the death rate due to cholera by 90%. By so doing, the disease can be eradicated from at least half of the 47 cholera-affected countries. The objectives of this roadmap are: to fortify health systems, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and to coordinate different ways by which cholera can be controlled in these countries by 2030 (ensuring early detection and prompt response to contain outbreaks). This review aimed to understand the epidemiology of cholera in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large, to access the level of spread, management and preventive measures so far implemented in the endemic regions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-469
Author(s):  
Tiamo Katsonga-Phiri ◽  
Kathryn E. Grant ◽  
Molly Brown

Sub-Saharan Africa is a part of the world that is highly affected by a large number of atrocities, causing a myriad of financial, physical health, and mental health consequences. Yet, unfortunately, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is also the part of the world that is least served by mental health services. In response, the WHO has created mandates to increase mental health resources and capacity in all countries. Researchers have taken on the work of introducing and adapting treatments in various sub-Saharan African countries with an aim to create sustainable, evidence-based treatment in a part of the world with high need. The current qualitative systematic review of the literature examines 20 articles that report on research conducted in sub-Saharan African countries with children who have suffered different types of traumas. This review answers questions concerning the types of treatments used, the people administering the treatments, the measures they take to adapt these treatments, and the types of outcomes that are seen. Overall, the majority of treatments being used are shown to be effective with the associated populations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 754-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ayofemi Olalekan Adeyeye ◽  
Abiodun Omowonuola Adebayo-Oyetoro ◽  
Hussaina Kehinde Tiamiyu

Purpose This paper aims to examine the concept of poverty and malnutrition in Africa, implications and the way out. Design/methodology/approach Several literatures were reviewed on the causes, modes, implications and solutions to the contemporary challenges of poverty and malnutrition in Africa. Findings Poverty and malnutrition are two sides of a coin that are ravaging the African continent. These were as a result of underdevelopment, maladministration and lack of focus and vision by the generations of leaders saddled with administration in different African countries. Poverty in Africa embraces lack of basic human needs faced by people in African society. Many African nations are very poor, and their income per capita or gross domestic product per capita fall toward the bottom of list of nations of the world, despite a wealth of natural resources. In 2009, according to United Nations (UN), 22 of 24 nations identified as having “Low Human Development” on the UN’s Human Development Index were in sub-Saharan Africa and 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 233 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry/undernourished in 2014-2016 (its most recent estimate). In total, 795 million people were hungry worldwide. According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa was the area with the second largest number of hungry people, as Asia had 512 million, mainly due to the much larger population of Asia when compared to sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank also reported in 2012 that sub-Saharan Africa Poverty and Equity Data was 501 million people, or 47 per cent Poverty has also been reported as the principal cause of hunger in Africa and the principal causes of poverty have been found to be harmful economic systems, conflict, environmental factors such as drought and climate change and population growth. Originality/value This study examined the concept of poverty and malnutrition in Africa, the implications and the way out.


1993 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Plank

By the World Bank's reckoning, Mozambique is the poorest country in the world, with a gross domestic product per capita of approximately $80 in 1990, as well as one of the most dependent on foreign assistance, which accounts for two-thirds of measured G.D.P. Indeed, aid receipts per capita amounted to approximately $60 in 1990, almost double the figure for sub-Saharan Africa, as may be seen from Table I.


Author(s):  
Mukovhe Maureen Nthai

The development of Africa is not only a problem to the Africans alone but also to the world at large. This is because some regions of the world also depend on Africa for their livelihoods. In Sub Saharan Africa one of the rural development strategies identified is land reform. Post-colonial African governments have argued that land reform would alleviate the majority of the people in the region from poverty, create employment, and address inequality. This is the position adopted by the post-apartheid government in South Africa beyond 27 April 1994. However, the South African post-apartheid land reform has had some significant complexities in its implementation – especially with regard to funding. Funding was impeded by widespread corruption in government. In addition, there has been immense lack of interest in making funds available for land reform in South Africa from non-governmental entities and donors.


Author(s):  
Thomas Von Danwitz

It is certainly well observed that the subject matter of good governance, by its mere terminology, constitutes a fairly recent evolution which has been, notably in the 1990’s, closely linked to the idea of giving a new impetus to development policy, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa. The new terminology has received widespread interest which has made the political call for good governance a central feature of development policy[1] ever since it has been put on the international agenda by a World Bank study in 1989.[2] Despite a rising number of critics claiming this concept to be without any substance and asking whether it would be new after all,[3] the idea of good governance has flourished ever since and has certainly evolved into a transnational concept of political leadership, a real leitmotiv for a common approach to the way how our global village should be governed.[4] The incredible success story of the striving for good governance is, in my view, due to three cumulative aspects which certainly contributed a great deal to the general agreement that good governance is a concept without proper alternative: Firstly, the concept of good governance is self-evident. It needs nothing else but common sense[5] to be understood: Entrepreneurs will not invest in unstable countries and people, whether entrepreneurs or not, will not wish to live there, if they can afford to go elsewhere.[6] Secondly, the concept of good governance is sufficiently vague to absorb a great variety of political preferences as well as substantive differences. Its flexibility is most certainly the reason why it has met so little resistance and found so much support. And thirdly, it was issued at the right point in time when public opinion was profoundly marked by the experience of the revolutionary force of glasnost and the general inability of corrupt regimes around the world to meet today's challenges.[7]*        Thomas von Danwitz. D.I.A.P. (ENA, Paris), Judge at the European Court of Justice, Luxemburg/Cologne.[1]        Graf Vitzthum Völkerrecht 6.part points 33 et seq.[2]        The World Bank Sub-Saharan Africa 60.[3]        See De Waal 2002 International Affairs 463.[4]        See Dolzer 2004 ZaöRV 535.       [5]        Dolzer 2004 ZaöRV 536.[6]        See Squires 2004 Cov L J 45 and 54.[7]        See Cygan 2002 MLR 229.


Author(s):  
Alexandru Gribincea

The study of the situation in Europe and other countries in the context of demographic evolution, the forecast of economic development has shown that the population, structural migration and economies are closely correlated. The population and economy in the EU in the near future will undergo dramatic changes. In some developed, industrialized countries, the population grows slowly or stagnates, while in economically poor economies, birth rates are accelerating, and as healthcare increases, it will lead to a demographic explosion. In recent years, the EU population has grown by 507 million, with a projected increase of 5% by 2050, reaching a maximum of 526 million, after which it will decrease to 523 million in 2060 yr. In about half of the EU countries, despite the population growth trend, the total population will diminish. This trend refers to Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovakia. In total, decline of population in Eastern European countries is linked to a number of factors. First is the reduction of the socio-economic level of the population, increasing labor migration to countries with advanced living standards. In these countries, as a rule, the standard of living, social and medical assistance, social protection is reduced. At the same time, world community is going through a difficult time. A deep and prolonged recession that followed the global financial crisis has changed with the slow recovery of employment. Never in the history of mankind, the growth rate of the world population was not as large as in the second half of the 20th and early 21st century. Between 1960 and 1999, the population of the planet doubled (from 3 to 6 billion people), and in 2007 - 6.6 billion people. Although the average annual growth rate of the world's population declined from 2.2% in the early 1960s to 1.5% in the early 2000's absolute annual growth increased from 53 million to 80 million people. Demographic changes from traditional (high fertility - high mortality - low natural growth) to the modern reproductive population (low fertility - low mortality - low population growth) ended in developed countries in the first decade of the 20th century, and most of the transition economies - in middle of last century. At the same time, in the 1950s and 1960s, the demographic transition began in several countries and regions of the rest of the world and begin to the end only in Latin America, East Asia and Southeast Asia and continuing in East Asia, Africa Sub-Saharan Africa from the Sahara to the Middle East. Rapid population growth compared with the indicators of socio-economic development in these regions leads to aggravation of problems related to employment, poverty, food, land, low education and health risks. Keywords: workforce, aging population, birth rate, living standards and life expectancy, inflation, unemployment and technical and scientific progress


Author(s):  
Godwin Onu

The 20th and 21st centuries have witnessed major paradigm shifts in the conceptualization of development and governance. These phenomena are aided and propelled by a new “network intelligence” consummated in the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT). The world has also witnessed a reinvention of the whole process of governance that has impacted society in various ways. Through the Internet and digital connectivity, today’s world has come to be closer than ever before. Efficiency and processes of governance have been improved through faster information flow in the governance chain. Bottlenecks and cost of labor have been reduced across the world. Furthermore, ICT has opened new possibilities, improved transparency and access to information as well as partnership and collaboration, leading to improved relationships between the citizen and state. While Europe and North America, as well as some countries of Asia and the pacific, have taken advantage of this development to improve their economies and governance process, Ningo (1999) observes that sub-Saharan Africa has remained either passive or in the periphery, often reduced to a consumer for reasons related to its history or its system of governance—or lack of one. This has led to a yawning digital divide (especially between Africa and developed states of the world. What led to this divide and how can Africa, then, benefit from this revolution? What are the obstacles?


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