The economist's tale: A consultant encounters hunger and the world bank by Peter Griffiths (Zed Books: London, 2003, pp. ix + 252).

✍ Scribed by Oliver Morrissey

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 31 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/jid.1045

✦ Synopsis

This is a light read, but a serious story entertainingly told. The paperback is suitable airport reading as you await the next flight on a research, consultancy or fieldwork trip. The story is about Africa (Sierra Leone) and will resonate most closely with those who have worked in sub-Saharan Africa, but has wider appeal and relevance. The author, an economic consultant, eventually got a strong guilty feeling-partly, it would appear, prompted by the questions of his young daughter, but largely because of this experience in a country where, he argues, the World Bank got it badly wrong.

The book is written in the form of a diary, and captures nicely the feel of an African country-the offices and attitudes of officials, the ex-pats in the bar, his relationship with his driver, etc. The writing has a light touch that invites the reader to turn the page, and relates many vignettes of the consultant's life that will be familiar to many readers. It is, however, an economist's tale so the story line is about overvalued exchange rates, distortionary policies and, in particular, the misguided approach to agricultural policy promoted by the World Bank. It is to the author's credit that the economic arguments are generally presented in a clear and balanced way. As such the book would be useful for students who want to get a feel for how economic activity actually 'works' in poor countries (there are also useful tips on how to conduct interviews to acquire information, and on the value of reading local newspapers).

One issue explored in the book, in regard to export crops (coffee and cocoa), is the answer to the question 'why, as prices are high, are farmers so poor?' Various answers are developed as the author travels the country, visits projects, talks to farmers, traders and officials, and generally tries to figure out what is really happening. Export taxes, an overvalued exchange and an inefficient Agricultural Marketing Board (combined with inefficient state owned processing plants) account, in combination with corruption at multiple levels, for most of the explanation. The final piece of the jigsaw was price stabilization policy, the failures of which throughout Africa are succinctly explained. 'The first part of the stabilisation process is easy, taking away farmer's money when prices are high. The second part, giving back the money when prices are low, never works' (p. 147).

The consultant's job is to devise a food pricing policy. The main problem is that the World Bank has already decided that the policy should be to leave everything to the private sector-abolish food (rice) subsidies and limit the Agricultural Marketing Board (which had the responsibility of importing rice to sell at subsidised prices) to holding a strategic stock. On face value, this would increase the consumer price of rice by tenfold, not obviously a good idea. The Government accepted the policy because the World Bank told them to, and the Bank proposed the policy because the Free Market was seen as the solution to all ills. Nobody appeared to have based the policy on any analysis, and all of the author's own analysis suggested it was doomed to disastrous failure. Could our hero save the country? 'I have now collected enough evidence to know that famine is inevitable unless the Agreement [with the Bank] is scrapped. I have to get action somehow ' (p. 192).

The author prepares a paper setting out his analysis of why the proposed policy would be disastrous, and then tries to get this to senior officials. Political events supported his argumentsstudent riots up-country and an attempted coup by police officers would have left the Government reluctant to risk food riots. Nevertheless, there was no response after about a month so he prepared another, more dire, paper for Cabinet. This elicited some response-the Government recognised the need to continue importing rice through the Marketing Board (to have available at subsidised prices) and to 'amend' the agreement with the Bank. Unfortunately, events took a turn for the worse as Sierra Leone collapsed into civil war. No happy ending. This is a good book. It combines informed economic reasoning with insight into the reality of African countries. Researchers, consultants and others familiar with Africa will recognise most of