Disruptions and Rhetoric in African Development Policy

✍ Scribed by George Kararach

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 332
• Series: (New Regionalisms Series)
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The book examines the failures and some of the successes of Africa in its efforts to transform into a society where human security or development in the broadest sense is achieved.

It is argued the African continent had, and will continue, to content with disruptions or change on its path to development. Development policy making in this regard, is an art of setting out strategies to build resilience and take advantage of disruptions or change in whatever format: political, economic, health, diplomatic, demographic or even environmental and climatic. The book discusses nine major disruptions in Africa’s socio-economic life and the limits imposed by the rhetoric in development policy: exclusion and social inequality, environmental degradation and climate change, natural resources and poor beneficiation, trade and aid, food insecurity, demography and migration, pandemics and disease burden, conflict and criminality and technology and innovation.

The book is intended for intermediate students in African studies, Area Studies, Development Economics, Development Studies, Public Policy and Comparative Politics. In addition will be development practitioners working in developing countries, the UN system, multilateral development banks, donor agencies and regional economic communities in Africa.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Endorsements
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Acronyms
About the Author
Overview
1. Development as disruptions – a reconstruction of the theory and practice
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Understanding disruptions, rhetoric and structural transformation
Conceptual issues – disruptions, rhetoric and structural transformation
Natural sources of disruptions
Man-made sources of disruptions
Market-based disruptions
1.3. Development theories, disruptions and rhetoric
Modernisation theory
Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches
Structuralist and dependency theory
Julius Nyerere, Meles Zenawi, Thomas Sankara and the theory of change as discontent
1.4. Economic dynamics and modern disruptions in the world economy
Technology and innovation
Competition and market contestations as political complexity
Disruptions and the special case of labour markets
Trade, global value chains and disruptions
Policy disruptions, sequencing and tool selection
1.5. Politics and disruptions
Champions and change agents for development
Interest groups and coalitions’ influence on development
Human security, criminality, stateless persons and minorities
Role of social discontent
1.6. Creative destruction and opportunities in a crisis – Between risks and uncertainty
Crisis as opportunities for new development trajectory
Understanding risks in a globalized world
Uncertainty and decision-making
1.7. Cumulative causation and linkage effects as transmission mechanisms of disruptions
Backwash effects
Spread effects
Linkages and transmission of disruptions
1.8. Disruption, rhetoric and African development – Mixed results and rethinking the meaning of change
Colonialism and the disruptions in Africa
Independence, its failings and the making of the modern African economy
Globalization and modern sources of shocks: Failed industrialisation and rising inequality
1.9. Conclusion
2. Social discontent as search for development: From colonialism to independence
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Economy, society and discontent – An economist consideration of disruption
Creative discontent – optimising resource generation and use
Destructive discontent as resource waste
Monopolies and effects
Corruption and resource waste
Discontent as decision function and individual agency
Emigration as discontent
Criminality and drugs
Riots as expressions of discontent
Reskilling as discontent’s response to disruptive technologies
2.3. Social movements as collective action – A political economy examination
Shared experiences and agency
Ideology and collective action
2.4. Some drivers of social discontents
Delivery of development objectives and impact targets
Freedom and social justice
Regime types and voices
State ineffectiveness and service delivery
2.5. Social movements and protests in Africa – A short, yet diverse, history
Anticolonial struggle – Maji Maji and Mau Mau rebellions
Apartheid and struggle for racial justice
Civil wars as discontent – The case of Ethiopia of the late 1970s
2.6. Discontent, social renewal and development possibilities: Examples in disruptions and rhetoric
Renewal after the genocide – The case of Rwanda
Importance of the leader in renewal – The case of Burkina Faso
Highjacked renewal – The case of South Sudan
2.7. Conclusion
3. Natural resources, climate change and poor beneficiation: The potential for a curse
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Natural resource finds and climate change as disruptions
Climate disruptions and development policy
Natural resource booms and conflicts as disruptions
Natural resource extraction, climate change and environmental sustainability
Natural resource governance and sustainability
Climate change and environmental assets sustainability
3.3. Markets and state reactions to natural resources and climate change
Markets volatility and natural resources
Market adjustments and rhetoric in pricing climate change
State reaction to natural resource finds and climate change
3.4. Enhancing inclusive beneficiation and managing commodity price volatility
Communities and enhanced beneficiation
Approaches to managing resource boom and price volatility
3.5. Climate change and social change
Climate mitigation strategies
Climate adaptation strategies
Climate financing
Climate change, natural resources and a just transition
Beneficiation, renewables and just transitions
Climate-smart technologies and innovation
Green and blue economic growth reconsidered
Agency and sustainability of the eco-system
3.6. Conclusion
4. Trade versus aid: Economics, politics and dilemmas in development cooperation
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Globalisation, rising protectionist measures and discontent
Discontent over trade regimes
Discontent over aid: No free lunch in the world economy
Economic development and free trade
Trade, global value chains and disruptions
Market concentrations and their pitfalls
Commodity concentration and shocks
Comparative advantage versus competitive advantage
4.3. Foreign aid and its disruption
Aid and technology transfer
Aid and the funding gap
Aid, the private sector and corruption
Aid, rogue regimes and democratic deficits
4.4. Disruptions beyond trade and aid: Economics, institutions and political change
Changes in trade patterns and effects on the economy
Changes in socioeconomic institutions
Changes in economic and political power
4.5. Rethinking trade policies in African development
Regional integration and trade capacity
Implementation of the AfCTA
Trade finance issues in Africa
Rebooting globalisation and new trade policy
4.6. Rethinking aid policies and development financing
South-South cooperation and the new multilateralism
Regional and national banks
Deepening domestic resource mobilisation versus external debt after COVID-19
4.7. Resolving the dilemma of trade versus aid in Africa’s development
Trade with aid: Enhancing trade facilitation and investment agreements
Deepening the meaning of results, mutual accountability and ownership in development
4.8. Conclusion
5. Food insecurity and agricultural stagnation
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Limited agricultural transformation and food insecurity
Defining food insecurity as disruptions
Weak input systems
Post-harvest losses as disruptions of quality food and access
5.3. Weak food market access and integration
Expensive food distribution systems
Poor social safety nets
Poor food processing system
5.4. Globalisation as disruption in food systems
Globalisation as source of vulnerability due to market integration
FDI in food systems
Globalisation and technology transfer
Globalisation, population movements and food security in Africa
5.5. Pandemics, diseases and ability to produce food
Disease burden and food production
Diseases and disruption of food safety
5.6. Poor agricultural and food policies
Vulnerability to price volatility
Climate change and food insecurity
5.7. Food sovereignty and agricultural policy
Agricultural planning
Food early warning system
5.8. Conclusion
6. Demography and migration – seeking out the dividends
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Demographic change as disruptions
Dependency ratio and the impact of age on the economy
Demographic growth as sources of labour
Demographic change and product markets
6.3. The politics and economics of demographic change
Fiscal decentralisation and national planning
Resource pressures and conflict
Ethnicity, participation and nation-building
6.4. Securing the demographic dividends
6.5. Migration as disruptions
Social pressures on services
Migration and labour market dynamics
Skills sharing and capacity boost
6.6. Migration as discontent
Push factors in Africa and development
Pull factors and development
6.7. Urbanisation and development
Urban growth and constraints on development in Africa
Urbanization as driver of transformation
6.8. Rethinking population policy in Africa
Skills development and job creation
Regional integration and the free movement of labour
Ethics, politics and diversity management in Africa
6.9. Conclusion
7. Pandemics and diseases as forces of dislocation – a post-COVID-19 view
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Pandemics and disruptions
Health and human security
Pandemics and national security
7.3. Science, politics and populisms
Pandemics, populism and minorities
The media, civic actions and public health
Politics and the right to health
7.4. Public health, pandemics and the economy
Health and the quality of labour
Pandemics and transmission mechanisms of effects into the economy
Pandemics and managing economic recovery
7.5. Health financing in Africa – Need for a rethink
Health insurance and a market approach
Universal publicly provided care
7.6. Pharma R&D and innovation
Pandemics and birth of R&D in medicine
Pharma’s innovation capacity and industrialisation
7.7. Regionalism, resource pooling and centres of excellence
Pandemics and the renewal on multilateralism
Pandemics, regional public goods and resource pooling
Developing centres of excellence
7.8. Impacts of pandemics and the social contract
Pandemics and social vulnerabilities
Pandemics and inequality
Discrimination and the renewal of the social contract
Politics, economics and revisiting health policies
7.9. Conclusion
8. Conflict, drugs and criminal upheavals in African development
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Conflict, drugs and crimes as disruptions
The economics of conflict – A review
On conflict and its varieties
The evolving drugs problem in Africa
Crime, natural resource plunder and human security
8.3. Managing conflict, drugs and criminality – A governance-cum-development agenda
Power distribution and political structures
Issues of alienation – Ethnicity, religion and ideology
The Great Lakes
Ethnic federalism and tension in Ethiopia – The conflict in Tigray and Amara regions
Ethnicity, elite capture and the collapse of national purpose – The case of South Sudan
Redefining citizenship and inclusion
Redefining the criminal justice system and governance of drug problems
8.4. On managing diversity and prioritising development
Managing elections and representations
Restoring constitutionalism in Africa
Embedding diversity in public space and institutions
8.5. Entrenching democratic practice and fostering economic inclusion
Success factors in social renewal
Consolidating democratic practice and transitions
8.6. Responses to conflict, drugs and crime: Between disruptions and rhetoric
Domestic policy, conflict resolution and national healing
Reforming regional norms and standards
Responding to emergent trends: AI, regulation, cyber criminality and security
Pooling resources for measured responses
8.7. Conclusion
9. Innovation, AI and technology as handmaiden of development
9.1. Introduction
9.2. Innovation and technology as disruptions – A historical reflection
Role of technology
AI and the future of Africa’s development
9.3. The STI and associated landscape in Africa
GVCs, Africa’s global competitors and the potential for leapfrogging
Assessing the technology gap
Assessing the innovation gap
Funding frameworks and the STI architecture
9.4. AI and the anxiety of a pending curse on society
AI and labour market evolutions
Harnessing the power of AI and internet of things – The new economy and sectors
Humanity, ethics and the learning loops – Keeping humans in charge of evolving technologies
9.5. The birth of the digital economy
Digitisation and financial inclusion
E-commerce and the digital economy
E-governance and service delivery in Africa
9.6. Constraints on and opportunities for the emergence of a developed digital eco-system
Role of government and regulation
Fitting in the private sector
Public investments in innovation as R&D as public goods
On partnerships and creation of centres of excellence: The triad of government, universities and industry
9.7. Conclusion
10. Democracy and social inclusion: Bridging public action and development policy rhetoric
10.1. Introduction
10.2. Avoiding immiserising growth: Issues of poverty, inequality and social protection
10.3. Civic voice and the need for private sector accountability in development
10.4. State legitimacy, participation and accountable government in African development
10.5. Service delivery and economic redistribution in development
10.6. Informality, industrialisation and inclusive growth
10.7. Rethinking socio-economic governance for structural transformation
10.8. The liberator as a lost development tour guide: Democratic decay and the failed nation building project
10.9. Keeping ‘politics in’: Moving beyond seven silly African underdevelopment excuses
10.10. Conclusion
References
Index