African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant

The report of the Commission for Africa, summarised here and more heavily here, is an ambitious and sophisticated analysis of the problems plaguing Africa and the steps needed to solve them. But it isn’t without critics. Last time, I looked at those who criticised the Commission for being too conservative in its calls for Western action and in its criticisms of the role of rich countries and corporations in Africa. This time, let’s look at the other side: those who criticise the report for going too far in those same directions. You could call this the “right-wing” criticism, because its central point is that the Commission doesn’t put enough faith in markets. This is the view of a large number mainstream economists. (more…)

The report of the Commission for Africa, the brain trust of African and other leaders, economists and thinkers set up by Tony Blair, became one of the highest-profile “packages” of solutions for African put forward in 2005, during the Make Poverty History campaign in the leadup to the G8 summit in Gleneagles. We’ve summarised its findings at length, and at a little less length. Its program is heavily evidenced, and comprehensive. But I didn’t want to pretend there haven’t been criticisms of it, because there have. (more…)

Last time, we saw Jeffrey Sachs discussing Africa’s tremendous burden of disease and its relationship to the continent’s poverty and slow economic growth. Next, Sachs turned his attention to the rest of Africa’s problems, and to broader lobbying for more international action on poverty. But a small matter of a terrorist attack got in the way. (more…)

Jeffrey Sachs‘ book The End of Poverty is as much autobiography as pop-economics. Last time, we looked over the sections where he discusses his work advising Bolivia, Poland and Russia on the management of their economies, and their transition towards various types of socialism to liberalised markets. Next, he turns his attention to the world’s biggest developing countries, India and China. (more…)

Martin Meredith’s excellent book The State of Africa¹ gives a concise, thorough, generally impartial and often exhilarating run-through the rollercoaster ride of African politics since the beginnings of independence in the 1950’s. A tale of tyrants, cruel conflicts and broken promises, it’s often scary but never morbid. Its conclusion, though, is striking: “Fifty years after the beginning of the independence era, Africa’s prospects are bleaker than ever before.”

Even I’m not sufficiently presumptuous to try to summarise fifty years of a continent’s history in a blog post. But I can provide a sort of reference guide, for quickly knowing a country’s basic political history. (more…)

The Commission for Africa was a collection of African and non-African politicians, academics and activists, appointed in 2005 by Tony Blair to put forward proposals for policies to kick-start African development. Their report was released in early 2005; as well as the 464-page full report, there’s a reduced “The Argument” version which is also available in book form. If you’re really in a hurry, there’s a six-page executive summary.

We’ve previously run through the Report, and each heading below will take you to the relevant post. Aren’t I just too nice?

So here’s a very quick run-down of the headline points: (more…)

Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked over the recommendations of the Commission for Africa on governance, peace building, trade, social policy and aid. In the final chapter of their report, the Commission outlines the other, wider changes to the process of international governance, and the attitudes of rich-country governments, that are needed to “make it happen.” (more…)

The Commission for Africa Report doesn’t do itself any favours by calling its eighth chapter “Leaving No-one Out: Investing in People.” To anyone who’s worked at an organisation undergoing the personnel policy inspection of the same name, this just conjures up images of council busybodys measuring steps against wheelchair access standards. Mercifully, the chapter is dedicated to a slightly more urgent matter: ensuring the economic growth painstakingly planned out in the preceding chapters benefits the poor. (more…)

The discussion of how economic growth can help Africans out of poverty has often become a row between those who focus on the steps Africans and their governments can take to improve growth rates, and those who focus on the steps rich countries must take. As we saw last time, the Report of the Commission for Africa has much to say about the steps African countries can take to improve their economic performance. However, it has plenty to say about what rich countries must do too. (more…)

Criticisms of Africa’s governance have long been a staple of many of the voices opposed to aid and debt relief. Africa, they say, is poor because it’s mismanaged. We shouldn’t throw any more good money after bad until they improve. So it’s interesting that the Report of the Commission for Africa, rather than simply leaping to the defence of African governments, acknowledges many of the problems. (more…)

The Africa Commission Report is peppered with some of the most eye-catching statistics about Africa’s development plight. Now, we all know out-of-context statistics aren’t to be trusted. But they sound really good when you drop them into conversations.

To make things interesting I’ve jumbled them up. Can you match the figure to the fact? (more…)

OK. So I spent an afternoon reading Guardian articles from 2005 about Make Poverty History, The Africa Commission report, and The Future Of Africa. What did I learn? Well, it just increased my sense that there’s massive disagreement about, well, just about all of it. It has, however, given me a slightly better idea of exactly what the disagreements are. The main bones of contention seem to be: (more…)

OK. This is going to take some planning. African development is, I’m beginning to realise, quite a big topic. So I think I’m going to do some general reading first, and try to understand what the big issues are. Maybe I’ll start by looking through some of the newspaper coverage from last year.