Tim Unwin - Africa is indeed rich December 3, 2010
In the unlikely event of you having some spare time you might like to read something that Tim Unwin wrote about buiding on Africa's richness rather than always describing it as being poor. It's long but an interesting read - and not quite as long as it seems as the last ten pages are all references.
This is a taster from the first couple of pages ( Africa is indeed rich )
ABSTRACT:
This paper argues that there needs to be a shift in the balance of understandings of Africa from being a continent dominated by poverty to one that is instead conceptualised as being ‘rich’. It begins with an overview of arguments that seek to portray Africa as being poor, and then examines the interests that donors, African governments, the private sector, civil society and consultants all have in propagating such an image. In contrast, it then illustrates how Africa can instead be seen as being rich in terms of its mineral wealth, agricultural potential, culture, social and political institutions, and physical environment. It concludes by arguing that development initiatives that continue to seek to eliminate poverty in Africa will remain doomed to failure unless they refocus their attention on building upon the continent’s existing riches.
1. Introduction: African poverty and richness
Africa is all too frequently described as being ‘poor’, be it in academic discourses, global development conferences, the popular media, or the minds of most people as they go about their daily lives. In his important book, The End of Poverty, Jeffrey Sachs (2005, p.208), for example, comments that ‘The combination of Africa’s adverse geography and its extreme poverty creates the worst poverty trap in the world’. Likewise, Tunde Obadina (2004, unpaginated), the Director of Africa Business Information Services, comments that ‘Africa is clearly a land of extreme poverty. The continent epitomises destitution, its images commonly used by media and charity organisations to depict human want and suffering’. The BBC’s news website for children, cbbc newsround, similarly has a page entitled ‘Why is Africa poor?’ that includes the following summary: ‘By the year 2000, half the world’s poor were in Africa. It is the only continent to have become poorer in the past 25 years. This is because of several reasons: borrowing money, growing cash crops, dictatorship, fighting, population growth, land ownership, climate change, dirty water’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4070000/newsid_4077100/40771 04.stm accessed 15th September 2008).
In contrast to such arguments, this paper seeks to explore the implications of the suggestion that Africa might actually be a ‘rich’ continent. Such a notion immediately forces us to consider three issues: first, the ways in which we define poverty and richness; second, the interests that continue to shape our understandings of Africa as being poor; and third, the evidence that might exist that Africa is indeed rich. By exploring these agendas, I seek to encourage a shift away from an emphasis on how to ‘eliminate poverty’ in Africa towards a focus on ways in which those interested in doing so might be able to help Africans to ‘build on their richness’. There is undoubted human suffering and poverty to be encountered across Africa, but it is important to challenge all too often taken for granted assumptions about the ways in which particular places are characterised. Posing the question of whether Africa is ‘rich’ or ‘poor’ not only encourages us to examine how we conceive of these notions, but more importantly it forces us to explore the reasons why such terms are used to describe certain places and people, and what their implications are for ‘development’ practices. In essence, we need to understand the interests underlying the use of words such as ‘rich’ and ‘poor’.
I found it on "Tim Unwin's Blog"
I found the reference to the paper in this Development as ‘economic growth’ or ‘poverty reduction’. http://unwin.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/development-as-economic-growth-or-poverty-reduction/ - I have copied a relevant section for you below:
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I have elsewhere argued strongly that Africa is indeed rich, and that we need to help build on its richness rather than always describing it as being poor! The irony is that the paper I have written on this has continually been rejected by academic journals – quite possibly because it too does not conform to accepted dogma!
I clearly need to learn to express my arguments more convincingly. This is a brief attempt to do so in the form of some basic principles:
- The potential for inequality to increase is inherent within all economic growth.
- Economic growth, defined in absolute terms, cannot therefore eliminate poverty (see my critique of Jeffrey Sachs, for example, in ‘No end to poverty’)
- If economic growth proceeds unchecked, it will inevitably lead to increased inequality that will ultimately fuel social and political unrest at a range of scale
- A fundamental role of states is thus to intervene in the market to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised are not excessively disadvantaged.
- Given that the market serves the interests of the majority of people, it is incumbent on those who care about reducing inequalities specifically also to address the needs and interests of the poor.
- Such an argument can be justified both on moral grounds (that it is just), and also on socio-political grounds (to reduce potential violence)
- With reference to mobile technologies, therefore, all I was doing in my keynote was to argue that companies, entrepreneurs, app developers, and all those claiming to use ‘mobiles for development’ should seek to address the needs of the poor and marginalised, alongside those of global corporations and their shareholders.
- This is premised upon a belief that ‘development’ is about rather more than just economic growth, and includes notions of equality of opportunity and social justice.
Via Twitter
By the way - given the Dadamac "Twitter tutorial" yesterday you may be interested to know that I found the reference to the blog when I was checking Twitter earlier this evening (but I won't explain the various steps that got me there). Next time you try Twitter you may like to find Tim there - http://twitter.com/#!/TimUnwin
Posted to Dadamac's Posterous by Pamela McLean
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