Today's (June 1, 2000's) L.A. TIMES reports on a World Bank study on
African underdevelopment. "Racked by war, disease, and corruption,
sub-Saharan Africa today suffers from income levels that actually are lower
than in the 1960s, when the region was embarking on a hopeful new chapter
of independence from colonial rule."
".... The report singled out Africa's failure to diversify its economies
beyond exports of basic commodities, its reliance on foreign aid and its
debt burden as problems that held back advancement."
It seems to me that the kind of policies that the World Bank itself pushes
would encourage a lack of diversification (though some places might
specialize in offering low unit labor costs -- i.e., low wages relative to
labor productivity -- in competition with a lot of other places in the
world). It's very hard for a small country that's been opened to free trade
to do anything but overspecialize.
Also, though I haven't read the report, it seems to me that it's the _type_
of aid that a country gets that can delay its development. For example,
military aid from whatever source basically hurts the country. (The US, of
course, is the main beneficiary of such aid, since it's the main seller.)
Most non-military aid by the US aims to help US businesses rather than the
recipient (so I'm not _too_ upset by the decline in US aid in recent
years). But some aid -- say, from OXFAM -- seems to help (at least
according to the folks at Food First).
On the third factor, I wonder if the World Bank is advocating an erasure of
the debt burden as a way to promote development?
It's notable that the LA TIMES' report on the WB report doesn't mention
possible causes of the decline such as the bizarre divisions between
countries that are left over from colonialism, the continued dominance by
foreign powers (neocolonialism), ethnic divisions within countries, and the
separation between European-educated state bureaucrats and the people. It
doesn't mention the policies of the WB or IMF as contributing, but that
would be asking too much.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine
