Rethinking African Development: Toward a Framework for Social Integration and Ecological Harmony - Hardcover

Deng, Lual A.

9780865436077: Rethinking African Development: Toward a Framework for Social Integration and Ecological Harmony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 086543607X ISBN 13: 9780865436077

Publisher: Africa World Pr, 1998

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This book is a critical review of the theory and practice of development in Africa during the period 1965-1994. The author identifies six leading issues in African development: economic reform; democratization; environmental degradation; poverty reduction; indebtedness; and civil strife. By way of addressing these leading issues, Dr. Deng calls for the formulation of an African model of sustainable development, which would ensure consistency between development policy and African thought, heritage and institutions. Deng proposes on integrative African model of sustainable development, which consists of four key elements - consensual democratic system of governance; agriculture-led economic growth; social integration; and ecological harmony.

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About the Author

Lual A. Deng is a development economist who has worked with the government of the Sudan, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. He is currently with the UNDP Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO). The research for this book was completed at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway, where he was the African Development Bank visiting scholar (1995/96).

From the Back Cover

This book is a critical review of the theory and practice of development in Africa during the period 1965-1994. The author identifies six leading issues in African development: economic reform; democratization; environment degradations; poverty reduction; indebtedness; and civil strife. By way of addressing these leading issues, Dr. Deng calls for the formulation of an African model of sustainable development, which would ensure consistency between development policy and African thought, heritage and institutions. Deng proposes an integrative African model of sustainable development, which consists of four key elements-consensual democratic system of government; agriculture-led economic growth; social integration; and ecological harmony. He argues that one has to understand the political economy of African traditional societies in order to appreciate the nature and behavior of states rendered to operate under the consensual democratic political system.

He concludes the book with great optimism: "...inspite of the complexity and resource implication of the six leading issues in African development that are likely to dominate Africa's policy agenda in the 1990s and beyond,...there is a good chance for the integration of African economies, which would in turn lay the foundation for Africa's renewal and eventually lead to sustainable development."

Excerpt. � Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One: Introduction - If we journey backwards to the hour of African independence, in 1960, we may summon from remote corners of our collective memory perspectives and visions of radically different content. "Seek ye first the political kingdom," enjoined Ghanaian independence leader Kwame Nkrumah in his celebrated aphorism. Axiomatic to this widely-shared vision of the times was a sense of unlimited possibilities, with the political kingdom - the state - as macrohistorical agent of progress. Theologian of nationhood, architect of development, manager as well as proprietor of the economy, Mother Theresa to the less fortunate citizens, the state was invested with a breath-taking but at the time entirely credible historical mandate to fulfill dreams, even expectations, of civil society for a life more abundant. - Crawford Young (1996:2)

After a decade of economic structural adjustment programs (ESAPs), Africa continues to be the 'sick man' of the world with multiple signs of economic decay; civil strife resulting from social disintegration and exclusion; delegitimation of the state; indebtedness; rising poverty; and threats of a creeping desert as well as recurrent drought. These signs have recently triggered a call for a broad-front liberalization of economy and politics in Africa. But the drive to undertake simultaneously economic and political reforms has raised legitimate concerns, within the African policy community, about the feasibility of a broad-front liberalization. Moreover, given the seemingly overloaded agenda of African development, it is unlikely that a meaningful economic growth could be achieved at the turn of the century without a comprehensive policy framework that would guide decision-makers and other stakeholders in formulating appropriate strategies for economic development and social progress in Africa. However, a quick look at the leading issues in African development - economic reform, democratization, protecting the environment, reducing poverty, controlling indebtedness, and resolving internal conflicts - shows that designing such a framework is a complex undertaking, which requires critical thinking as well as moving away from the manner in which public policy has been formulated in the past. It essentially calls for a revisiting of Kwame Nkrumah's celebrated aphorism cited in the above epigraph. This is because the current situation in Africa necessitates going beyond policy prescriptions, to begin addressing the very nature of African State upon which the implementation of appropriate strategies for economic development and social progress in Africa would depend.

In addition to the situation depicted by the preceding paragraph, this book - Rethinking African Development - emanates from two general concerns about the process of policy formulation and its application in Africa. First, issues of sustainable development in Africa, in my view, have not yet received the attention needed, especially within the policy-oriented research and academic communities. The numerous world summits organized by the United Nations over the last four years - the Earth Summit, the Population Conference, the Social Summit, the Women's Conference, and so forth - seem not to have created an adequate level of awareness and/or research interest among African development analysts and researchers about the policy implications of the delicate population, poverty, and environment nexus. Second, the nature of the leading issues in African development calls for a critical examination of the past development strategies, and a search for a comprehensive macro-policy framework that would enable Africa to address these issues simultaneously. Such a framework would in turn ensure the developmental impact of a public policy on ordinary Africans at the turn of the century. Therefore, the overall objective in writing this book is to generate research interest in issues of sustainability, and to provoke and motivate critical thinking within the development policy community. A secondary objective has been to contribute to the enhancement of the quality of the contemporary discourse on African development in the 1990s and beyond. I strongly believe that for African intellectuals to make a substantial contribution in the service of Africa, they will have to think more critically and work harder than their contemporaries in the rest of the world. It is our moral duty and social obligation to utilize our accumulated knowledge and lead the quest for quality in the management of African development, so as to restore human dignity to ordinary Africans and then to ourselves. This, I think, is to be done through a systematic intellectual dialogue among those concerned with the current state of development on the continent. I also believe that nobody has a monopoly of knowledge. Some people may have control over information pertaining to Africa and financial resources that tend to perpetuate their hegemony over African development policy formulation. Yet, these do not necessarily give them the monopoly on knowledge about African development. Knowledge is power, which we must apply to enhance the quality of life of our fellow Africans. This would be our intellectual contribution to humanity.

By way of revitalizing critical thinking with respect to the above general concerns, the book calls for rethinking African policy formulation for sustainable development. The cornerstone of this rethinking process is the integration of social, ecological, and growth concerns into a single conceptual framework for macro-policy formulation. Sustainable development is used in this book to imply a balanced combination of economic growth with effective poverty reduction, integration of the dynamic features of social institutions and values, and protection of the environment. A fifth dimension - capacity building/utilization and institutional strengthening for effective internalization of macroeconomic policies - should be added, however, to ensure sustainable development in Africa. It would also assure consistency of development policy with African institutions, systems of thought, and beliefs. In this regard, the view taken here is that there are four tenets of development policy in Africa in the 1990s and beyond: economic growth, poverty reduction, protection of the environment, and integration of social values and institutions into macroeconomic strategies. But all these four tenets presuppose that a broadly based political organ (movement/party) is effectively in charge of the state. That is, a consensus-based system of government is urgently needed in Africa to ensure the design and implementation of a comprehensive macro-policy framework which is commensurate with the multiplicity of African development problems.

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