States of development
- From: ano457@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 23 Oct 2005 09:38:46 -0700
November 2005
States of development
Many have argued that the key to development in Africa is more
financial aid and more democracy. But neither played a big role in the
economic take-off of Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea. What
the Asian success stories have had, and what Africa has lacked, is
properly functioning states
Matthew Lockwood
Matthew Lockwood is the author of "The State They're In: an Agenda for
International Action on Poverty in Africa." He was head of UK advocacy
at Actionaid, 2002-04, and previously head of international policy at
Christian Aid
Once upon a time, in the early 1960s, there were two very poor
countries, in what was then called the developing world. In one-let's
call it country A-income per head was little more than $100 a year.
In another-country B-income per head was slightly higher, but still
under $200 a year. In both countries poverty and illiteracy were
widespread. Both received substantial aid from the US. Country A had
recently emerged from a civil war, and country B was still mired in
one.
In country A, the economy grew rapidly throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
By 1986, it had overtaken Britain as an exporter of manufactured goods
to the US. Today, its companies compete successfully on world markets
for cars and electronic goods with American, Japanese and European
brands. Between 1975 and 1997, real incomes per head more than
quadrupled. It has a large middle class and a mature film industry. It
now ranks above Poland in the UN's human development index and has
joined the OECD.
In country B, 20 years of relentless economic decline was followed by a
long civil war in the 1990s, in which an estimated 3m people died. In
real terms, incomes today are now a third of what they were in the
1970s. Outside of mining, there is little industry, and none that is
competitive in global markets. Country B has no access to international
capital markets and is heavily dependent on foreign aid. It ranks 167th
out of 177 countries on the human development index, well below Haiti
and Bangladesh.
Country A is South Korea, and country B is the Democratic Republic of
Congo (formerly Zaire). The extreme divergence in fortunes from similar
levels of poverty in the 1960s between this Asian and African country
is not unique. In the 1970s, China was as poor as Malawi. But while the
latter remains among the world's poorest countries, struggling with a
terrible Aids burden and the constant threat of drought, China has seen
the largest reduction in human poverty ever in the last 20 years, and
is poised to overtake America as the largest exporter of goods to the
EU. Nigeria was better off than Indonesia in the 1970s but has since
fallen well behind despite Indonesia's recent troubles. Incomes in
Ivory Coast, once on a level with Malaysia, have slumped and civil war
has broken out, while the Malays have built a successful car industry
and seen their incomes soar.
The conventional account of the world since the 1960s is that of the
long road from cold war to globalisation. But the contrast between the
rise of Asia and the decline of Africa, usually considered a subplot in
this larger story, may in fact turn out to be the story.
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