The African Success Story

I wouldn’t hesitate to accept the notion that life is getting better in Africa for a lot of people, but I would be hesitant to accept that idea that it is aid, per se, that has created that improvement. I’d be more sympathetic to a perspective that attended more to how Africans have used/leveraged the resources of aid to their advantage and on their own terms. That story is probably highly complex (and highly cultural) and is more of a testament to African ingenuity, creativity, and sheer tenacity than number of dollars spent by the ‘developed’ world. Africans leverage many resources to their advantage; aid is only one of them.

I haven’t read the book…but I wonder what ‘we’ he is referring to in the subtitle.

One of your quotes rankles slightly with me: NGOs “understandably tend to focus not on what has been accomplished but on convincing people how much remains to be done”. Why is this understandable? (Acceptable?) If it was a case of aid agencies and NGOs focusing on single stories, cases etc. and stressed-out journalists and gullible readers make the mistake of assuming that these cases and stories can be generalized to cover the whole continent, yes, then it would be understandable on the part of the NGOs. But to my eye the NGOs generalize away quite as much as the journalists and pundits in question.

I think NGOs and aid agencies have a large role to play in many African countries. But it is high time that they open a few books, some statistical data and their eyes and recognize that the picture of Africa we are discussing here is not only bringing them increased funding, but also driving away other forms of development. I firmly believe that a more correct (and therefore positive) picture of Africa could drive increased investment into many African countries, creating real jobs, brining real and substantial improvement into the lives of many.

I have my own favorite question to ask people where I come from: “To what extent do you depend on international NGOs in your daily life?” … The replies to that question also tend to fall in an extreme of range of possibilities.

Is it the responsibility of NGOs to educate the public on Africa? It would seem that NGOs are only responsible to provide context for their efforts to their audience. The larger in scope, the more the responsibility. I think the journalistic community are much more to blame for only investigating problems and providing little or no context, but claiming to be balanced and complete. As news organizations continue to cut back on budgets, journalists are increasingly superficial.
Thanks Laura, for bringing our attention to this book!

“If it bleeds, it leads” has been the editor’s rule since the dawn of (yellow) journalism and never more so now with the 24 hour news cycle. Scope out today’s Huffington Post headlines: More World
Huge Pirate Bust.. Europe Protests.. Shocking Rape Case.. Scandal-Prone PM Defiant
Good news just isn’t news.
It is always important to consider the source and we have had plenty of discussions here as to the value of celebrity spokespersons on development issues or in this case non development.
And don’t get me started on some NGO’s heart wrenching appeals for funding.
That said there is plenty of good news even if economic growth has been negative here in Madagascar over the past 50 years as the population keeps growing faster than the economy.
In 20 years I’ve seen great improvements esp. in longevity and education. I see a growing educated urban youth population that is forward looking and finally the idea has percolated through the society here that life can be better in the future than the past. Many families now believe their children can have a better and different life than their grandparents and that you dont have to live like the ancestors. That change in mind set may be the biggest driver in development here.
Aid did definitely bring some of these positive changes. As did opening the country and the economy to free market economics instead of the old socialist ways. Globalization via TV and the internet brought changes too.

Wait, so what percent of African countries are at war right now?

Africa and the Whole Third World suffer because the West Loves Corrupt Leaders. Fraud Proof Voting is the Answer. http://cd3wd.com/seev/

Is the situation in Africa as bad as it’s portrayed in this country? Of course not – stereotypes exist on both sides of the aisle. I lived in Tanzania for three years, and it was always fun trying to convince people that no, not all Americans live like what you see in music videos and movies.

But the idea that Africa isn’t so bad just because the continent is not rife with internal conflict any more or because there are fewer famines is setting the bar pretty low, don’t you think?

In a lot of ways Sub-Sarahan Africa IS in bad shape, and there’s nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade. Yes, aid agencies showing pictures of starving kids with flies on their faces is dishonest and fuels the misconceptions…it’s also probably one of the only ways they can get the attention of people in this day and age with our 5-second attention spans.

I remain hopeful for Africa’s future, but anyone who has spent any significant amount of time on the continent will be more than happy to tell you about all of the really bad stuff that goes on. Tanzania is a pretty nice place in a lot of respects (I’ve heard it referred to as “Africa lite”, which I find hilarious), and there are still a ton of major issues. Terrible healthcare, extremely poor education quality, poor governance – these are all areas where little to no progress has been made since independence.

So yeah, Africa isn’t as bad as it’s portrayed in the US, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not bad.

“The disappointment about aid failing to deliver GDP growth in Africa still holds, since that was the original justification of aid.”

Well, it might be possible to see a focus on the GDP as a red herring, since so much of economy and life occurs in the informal sector, which isn’t and can’t be measured by such a poor indicator as GDP. If people don’t see that the formal economy benefits them, or can’t get a foothold inside it, then they work outside it. GDP is such a poor measure of well-being in so many ways.

geckonomist,

I will get back to you on the details of tariffs between Kenya and Nigeria. I don’t think there is that much trade between East and West Africa and I suspect the tariffs are high, but the major consideration could be the logistics costs. Cement for example, is a very heavy product, and unless you can generate the kind of volumes for export that the Chinese do, it might not be economically wise to move a few bags of cement all the way round the Cape of Good Hope.

I spent time with a very remarkable set of people – a Nigerian conglomerate in the Cement manufacturing business. Their business acumen and resilience is extraordinary. Energy is a major component of manufacturing, so they constructed a gas pipeline from the Niger Delta to central Nigeria. Unfortunately, the situation in the Niger Delta made gas supply unpredictable so they had to switch to kilns that used dual energy sources (gas and coal).

Logistics is also a major issue, so they are in the process of constructing railway sidings from plant locations to the nearest railway terminals and they investigating the use of river barges. (Logistics is a significant component of the ex-factory price of a bag of cement because African roads are terrible).

They also desire to expand aggressively into the African market so they are making a series of strategic investments (construction of plants and strategic investment in existing plants) in countries as diverse as Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This to deal with logistics costs and to benefit from trade agreements like SADC, ECOWAS and the East African Community.

They are betting that infrastructure will be big in Africa.

These are exactly the type of people that should be at the “sharp end” of the West’s engagement with Africa. Africa is brimming with entrepreneurial energy, but the West keeps beating a dead horse. The very popular Nigerian movie industry “Nollywood” for example, was created because a trader had a huge stock of empty VHS cassettes that he could not sell, so he dubbed a film on them and industry took off with ZERO government or aid investment.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. I wish I’d have said that, but Oscar Wilde did. So it is with aid. There are grains of truth in comments here but it is not one way and it is not the other – it does not seem helpful to insist that it is. Aid has achieved some great things. Trade has achieved some great things. And for both, the contrary is true too. Rigid ideologies ultimately, in my opinion, are not helpful. Sometimes, with the stuff I see on here that passes for educated debate, I question the sincerity of the site’s tagline. Broad generalizations are myopic, at best. Equating the donation of 50,000 T-shirts to villages in Africa with all aid programs is simplistic and unhelpful. It’s similar to blaming the missionaries for the crimes of King Leopold in the Belgian Congo. Complicit? Sure. To blame? Not entirely, not even close. Or blaming the oil companies for Gadaffi’s control of that country. Etc. It is refreshing to see an African weigh in, but I don’t agree with the view that NGOs do not solicit professionals in West Africa; in fact, they do. Most projects I know of are, in fact, composed mostly of West Africans. The disparities in incomes between expats and local hires are dispiriting but they are actually far greater in the private sector. The expat employees of multinationals make enormous sums of money compared to their local hires.
Tariffs are, of course, just one element in trade with the West. It’s far more complicated than just tariffs. In many ways, let’s be honest, Africa simply is not competitive in world markets. Shipping and logistics are big problems but so are access to finance (banks reject 80% of loan applications in Senegal; apr in Ghana is about 30%), the cost of telecommunications, packaging, good management, etc. From my experience, governance is a fundamental problem, but it is improving. Has aid made things worse in Africa? Would it have been better had aid agencies never set up shop? These are interesting questions, but somewhat moot at this point. It is more constructive to ask what works? What doesn’t? And to avoid broad tendentious generalizations.

“Improved productivity, foreign direct investment.

Items (with a proven track record) that aid can’t and won’t provide.
Hence, always ignored here. That’s also why NGO’s don’t want to talk to you, Chike, they don’t speak your economic language.

They are more interested in HDI numbers, conferences, “free” things like health care, volunteering, distributing T-shirts (bad), distributing Bilbles (good, HT to D.Bennett), conditional cash transfers, etc.”

FDI has a proven track record of what, exactly? You and Chike are talking about economic growth, but WHOSE economic growth? It certainly isn’t the economic growth of the poor rural African, who by and large has seen little of that. The economic growth that you are talking about is growth for the educated urban elites.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that entrepreneurship is taking off and Africans are coming up with innovative business solutions where the West has been unable or unwilling to help.

But let’s remember that probably the majority of these people are interested in one thing: getting rich. And there’s nothing wrong with that, either. But thinking that African entrepreneurship will lead to things like social justice and widespread development is silly.

In a sense, I don’t see this issue as West versus Africa – I see it as rich versus poor. The same thing right now is happening in the US. All of the debates over budget cuts, health care, collective bargaining rights, etc. to me are obvious signs of the class warfare that is going on in this country. The rich and powerful are often the same everywhere – they are concerned with maintaining their status and little else.

You see aid as a bad thing (not all NGOs hand out t-shirts and bibles, by the way), I see a lot of NGOs standing up for and trying to help people who have been left behind by their governments and economies. You see African businesses driving growth on the continent, I see wealthy Tanzanians in Dar es Salaam who drive around in Land Cruisers, send their children to the best schools, own huge houses, and are completely uninterested in the problems facing their country because those problems don’t affect them. They live in a bubble with the other educated urban wealthy and very much ascribe to “see no evil, hear no evil” – again, exactly what many of the wealthy in the US are doing right now.

The fact of the matter is that there actually ARE Westerners who are honestly concerned with the situation that poor Africans are in and how to get them out of poverty, just as there are Africans who are most definitely NOT concerned with the situation of the poor in their countries but rather enriching themselves at all costs. Trying to demonize one entire side is incredibly unhelpful – there are good and bad people on both sides of the aisle.

Kris,

Please don’t get me wrong, I also care genuinely care about the fate of poor Africans and I contribute to charities. But I understand that best solution for poverty is not aid.

I lived through an IMF mandated structural adjustment program (I will not wish it on my worst enemies!!) and I lived through the decade that the West forgot Africa (the 1990s). That decade was characterised by declining foreign investment and trade, it was a very bad decade.

Fortunately, the previous decade has been characterised by increased trade with major emerging market economies and both the RICH and the POOR have benefited.

Let me give you an illustration. Trade with the Chinese introduced the N70,000 ($470) motorcycle. Previously, the cheapest motorcycle cost about $1,000, this was beyond the reach of most Nigerians. With a N70,000 motorcycle an ambitious Nigerian could start a motorcycle taxi business and recoup his investment in three months or less. ( I know someone who leases out motorcycles).

With the money made from the motorcycle business, he is better placed to send his child to a private school (there are private schools for all classes of society and they tend to be better run than public schools), support his wife’s petty trading business, improve his nutrition (he can afford a N20 or 13 cent satchet of milk everyday for his family).

To facilitate this process further we need to improve infrastructure, education and healthcare so that the motorcycle rider’s son and daughter have a better start in life than their father and mother.

I have dealt with the Nigerian Government and I am of the opinion that the Nigerian Government is almost beyond redemption. I do not believe that the Nigerian Government is competent enough to manage healthcare or education, (although some state governments like Lagos are making some effort here). So I am all in favour of innovative low-cost private sector driven solutions to these problems. This is where I think that aid should be focussed.

This has been a fascinating discussion in the comments! Chike, I’ve really enjoyed your insights as a Nigerian businessman.

To Kris’ comment: “If the last 5 years have taught us anything, it’s that unchecked capitalism leads to unchecked greed, and I don’t see the situation changing very much in the near future. Companies are concerned with one thing: profits.”

This sounds very much like what Yunus has been preaching the last few years. It is absolutely true that companies are profit-maximizers, but I would say it’s going too far to presume that unchecked capitalism is the cause, or that regulating it is the cure for unchecked greed. Governments, from the Soviet Union’s attempts at communism to

Kris,

Please don’t be too hasty to pass judgement on the wealthy in Tanzania. If their wealth is legitimate, I have no problem with it.

Secondly, from my experience of the extended African family culture, most, if not all wealthy Africans support poor relatives and towns people (scores of them). In several cases putting them through school. So what you observed was a case of “donor fatigue”, not a cold heart.

For example, my Uncle supports a school in his village complete with university educated teachers. He also drives a land cruiser. In addition, the World Bank estimated remittances from the African diaspora at $5 billion per annum.

The problem is governance. The job of government is to provide education, healthcare and infrastructure. Governments will provide these amenities when they are held accountable. By not engaging effectively with civil society in Africa and primarily dealing with Government agencies, major donor / aid organisations are not facilitating this process.

I will give you an example, I was talking with a friend who worked with DFID. He told me that the agreed to support a de-worming campaign in one of the states. The governor announced to great fanfare that he was organising a de-worming campaign but what he did was to merely embezelle the funds he allocated to de-worming and use DFID money to carry out the exercise.

Most Nigerians were not aware of that incident and I would argue that this kind of thing is relatively common. I would also argue that the opaque nature of many of these donor agencies does not encourage accountability in government.

I think we’re talking in circles here. If we start recognizing all the growth coming from Africa, then we’ll loose the funding for Africa. Yes, Africa has come a long way but not far enough to cut back on their support.
Another thing, if we’re going to talk about Africa “getting better” we should talk about the specific individual countries and not a whole continent. If we’ve learned anything being overly general in development hasn’t solved the problem. Throwing large sums of money at developing countries doesn’t help so how would throwing the countries into one large group help?

I find myself questioning the statistics from the abstract from Charles Kenny’s novel. Though I do concur with the overall message of the article, it seems like most sub Saharan African states would lack the bureaucratic and institutional capacity necessary to gather these types of statistics. It would also seem like favorable statistics in these issues areas could go a long way in justifying the legitimacy of an African regime that may or may not be so legitimate. Referencing one of your more recent posts, this is probably bad data. It could be comprised by a dishonest regime or by incompetent statisticians. I’m not saying that I agree with such development authorities as Ted Nugent (lol), but readers should be wary of these statistics.