African economy
The economy of Africa is regional, transnational and transcontinental, with a population of around 1 billion people in 54 different countries. Africa is rich in mineral raw materials and other natural resources, yet it is the continent with by far the lowest average standard of living , although there are large regional differences. Of the 24 countries with “low human development”, 22 are in Africa , according to the Human Development Index . Of the 14 countries whose gross domestic product adjusted for purchasing power per capita was less than 1,000 US dollars in 2008 , 13 are in Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) is the only region of the world where poverty has increased since 1990. Real per capita income has risen, but the absolute number of poor also grew by around 100 million people. More than two thirds of the people in sub-Saharan Africa have less than two US dollars a day.
- When assessing these figures, however, it should be noted that more than a third of the farmers south of the Sahara produce their food and most of their livelihood entirely for themselves or their local communities ( subsistence economy ), so that they do not need any money for it. Another 50% combine self-sufficiency and market production in small family businesses with a maximum of 2 hectares of land. The quality of this way of life is also easily misjudged if one applies the current indicators of prosperity , as they are largely based on monetary units and can hardly capture subsistence benefits.
The widespread poverty and the increasingly worsening conditions for subsistence farming (displacement by large farms into less profitable regions, the emergence of new dependencies, population explosion , depletion of resources, rural exodus , social upheavals, etc.) have an impact above all on food and nutrition Health situation is negative. More than a fifth of the people in the sub-Saharan region are considered malnourished. The average life expectancy is only 61 years (2017), almost 40 percent of the population still live without an adequate water supply, and almost 70 percent without adequate sanitation. Added to this are the serious effects of the immune deficiency disease AIDS and other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis . In addition, violence , corruption and political instability make economic development difficult . A wide variety of suggestions for improvement have existed for several decades; apart from a few exceptions, their success has remained modest to this day.
Nevertheless, in the first decade of the 21st century, the region experienced the longest period of growth since the 1960s. The crises in the world economy since 2007 have had repercussions on Africa's economy through various channels. The individual countries are, however, affected to different degrees. Individual countries are on the move: fewer conflicts, more democratic elections, more peaceful transfers of power. The economy is developing. The average growth rate was almost six percent, and several African countries are among the world's fastest growing economies (see also: Next Eleven ). The global financial and economic crisis also only caused a brief slowdown in growth in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the World Bank, it was 5.1 percent in 2010.
Economic strength and potential of the regions
With regard to economic development, there are considerable differences between the individual African countries as well as within the states. The urban regions, especially the capital cities, are often much better developed than the mostly sparsely populated rural areas. Furthermore, there is often very large social inequality in Africa between a small, rich upper class and the majority of the population. Such structures have arisen primarily through colonization and the resulting cultural change from traditional forms of society to European values and norms.
The wealthiest countries are located north of the Sahara and in the south of the continent. North Africa has long been closely linked to the economies of Europe and the Middle East . To the south are with South Africa and Botswana , the most developed states of the continent whose economic strength also affects the neighboring countries. In Angola , Gabon and Equatorial Guinea , oil wealth favors the economic development of the countries. By contrast, the situation is particularly precarious in Niger , Chad , the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa and in Somalia on the Horn of Africa.
The persistently high population growth is of particular importance for economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1960 and 2000 it was 3% on average, while the economy grew by only 2% on average. As a result, the per capita gross domestic product of the African countries excluding South Africa fell from US $ 525 in 1970 to US $ 336 in 1997. If one excludes the economically disproportionately strong South Africa, the GDP per capita rose between 1960 and 2004 from 425 to 536 US dollars, at the same time the GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power fell from 1922 US dollars in 1975 to 1811 US dollars in 2004. Thanks to one Accelerated economic growth in the early 21st century, the GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power rose to 3969 US dollars by 2018.
Since the mid-1990s, Africa has experienced increasing economic growth for the first time since 1960. There are multiple reasons for that. First and foremost, the renewed rise in raw material prices and increased foreign direct investment, especially from the People's Republic of China , are contributing to this. The democratization that has been taking place in Africa since around 1990 and the associated better governance also contribute to the improvement, as does the end of numerous civil wars and extensive debt relief . In 2004 economic growth in Africa was 5.1%, in the first decade of the 21st century the average growth rate was almost six percent, which is, however, still below that of other growth regions such as East Asia or Latin America . Several African countries are among the world's fastest growing economies.
According to a study by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development , the following ten coastal countries have the greatest potential: South Africa and Namibia in the south , Morocco , Tunisia and Egypt in the north . Plus Senegal , Gambia , Ghana , Gabon and Mauritius . Nigeria, with a population of 170 million and a GDP of around 372 billion euros in 2013, has now replaced South Africa as the largest economy on the continent with a GDP of almost 229 billion euros. But the political instability and poor living conditions had a negative impact. Kenya has an expanding economy that is attracting more and more foreign companies, but the country is not able to feed the growing population and provide medical care.
| year | Gross domestic product in $ in million |
Gross domestic product in $ ( PPP ) in million |
Gross domestic product in $ per capita |
Gross domestic product in $ per capita (PPP) |
Share of world GDP in $ (in percent) |
Percent of global GDP per capita in $ ( PPP ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 29,974 | ... | 132 | ... | 2.19% | ... |
| 1970 | 64,569 | ... | 222 | ... | 2.18% | ... |
| 1980 | 272.116 | ... | 709 | ... | 2.43% | ... |
| 1990 | 336.946 | 874.207 | 661 | 1,716 | 1.49% | 31.23% |
| 2000 | 396.811 | 1,318,697 | 596 | 1,982 | 1.18% | 24.83% |
| 2010 | 1,369,735 | 2,800,320 | 1,576 | 3,222 | 2.07% | 25.03% |
| 2018 | 1,699,462 | 4,279,448 | 1,574 | 3,969 | 1.98% | 22.16% |
history
Early days
North Africa, particularly Egypt, is one of the cradles of human civilization. Before the rise of the Roman Empire , ancient Egypt was the most advanced civilization known to man. That of the Great Alexander 331 v. Chr. , Founded the port of Alexandria was for centuries the center of trade throughout the Mediterranean .
Development was different south of the Sahara. The Sahara desert made despite individual, known since ancient trans-Saharan routes as a natural barrier to trade between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa , so that the cultural and economic development of the regions south of the Sahara went differently. Only in the Horn of Africa region ( Nubia , Ethiopia , Somalia ) were there more intensive contacts with the Mediterranean , which is what makes this region culturally different from the rest of Africa to this day.
In the first millennium AD, the Kingdom of Aksum was the most important trading power on the east coast of Africa. The kingdom of Aksum maintained a strong navy and had trade links from the Byzantine Empire to India . During this time, a number of powerful and extensive empires emerged in the western Sahel, such as the Empire of Ghana , Kanem-Bornu or later Mali . There was a flourishing caravan trade with Muslim North Africa, the main trade goods were salt , fabrics and weapons , which were exchanged for gold and slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. The Arabs also played an important role in building a flourishing maritime trade along the east coast of the African continent , which reached to Kilwa Kisiwani in the south . The Swahili profited mainly from the trade in ivory and slaves, which were exported to India.
Centralized, state-organized societies developed in the densely populated and agriculturally well-developed region around the great lakes of Africa . In southern Africa , there were no major States, one notable exception was only the Munhumutapa Empire in what is now Zimbabwe .
Maritime trade with Europe
From the 15th century , Portuguese traders bypassed the Sahara trade by sea and traded on the coasts of West Africa . Decades after the Portuguese, other European states followed and with their trade created the basis for the emergence of other states such as the kingdoms of Benin , Dahomey and Ashanti , and loose associations of individual city-states also emerged . The backbone of the economy was the slave trade , which ended after the abolition of slavery in America in the 19th century .
colonialism
In the early days of European colonialism in Africa, a kind of laissez-faire style prevailed in economic matters . It was believed that the colonies would be built up economically by European settlers and companies. The colonial powers would only have to create optimal framework conditions without providing additional financial aid. However, this only happened in a few regions, if at all. The African colonies barely achieved any significant economic growth between the 1890s and 1920s . From then on it became clear that economic development based on the European model was hardly possible without support from the mother countries. With the advent of Keynesianism in the 1930s, projects were carried out to build the colonies economically. However, the global economic crisis , the Second World War and the costs of reconstruction in Europe prevented the development projects from continuing on a larger scale.
In the 1950s , the African colonies grew above their pre-war levels. The main reason for this was the demand for raw materials (and the resulting high prices) in the industrialized countries, initially caused by reconstruction and then by the high global economic growth at the time of the economic miracle .
independence
After most of the African colonies gained their independence from 1960 onwards , it was assumed that the previous high growth would continue. However, expectations were not met. Most countries continued to achieve respectable economic growth, but this was usually accompanied by an ever-increasing national debt . In addition, there was mismanagement and corruption within the new governments, as well as numerous civil wars , often fanned by the superpowers USA and USSR and supported by arms deliveries .
From the 1970s onwards, Africa was hit hard by the drop in commodity prices. The global economy weakened due to rising oil prices . In the decades that followed, Africa fell further and further behind other regions of the world in economic matters, despite continued, albeit low, growth. External debt rose from $ 6.9 billion in 1970 to $ 218 billion in 2004.
globalization
People's hopes for a better life associated with decolonization have been dashed in most sub-Saharan countries. On the contrary, there were various economic crises. Popular explanations attribute the failure of the "development" models and efforts to the inability of African societies to install capitalist-market structures and functioning states based on Western models.
Frederick Cooper , however, opposes such a "Western" view that the cause can be traced back to the successful resistance of Africans against the logic of exploitation and accumulation . His historical study shows that the complexity of social relationships in Africa made it particularly difficult to consistently implement the systematic exploitation typical of capitalism . Cooper's assessment from 1994 is still valid; also since the raw materials boom on the African continent triggered by China's growth.
economic sectors
Agriculture
No other continent is as economically dependent on agriculture as Africa: Over 60% of all employed Africans work in agriculture, more than three fifths of all farmers only operate subsistence farming , i. H. the farms they manage are so small that only a small proportion of the harvest or nothing at all can be sold. These traditional forms of economy only offer a livelihood where social change has only changed population structures slightly as a result of the influence of the western world and where natural ecosystems are largely intact. Since such conditions are less and less the case, pure subsistence production is usually no longer sufficient to adequately secure people's livelihoods .
There are a significant number of large, market-oriented farms in many parts of Africa that grow coffee , cotton , cocoa and rubber ; however, they are mostly owned by Europeans and mainly employ day laborers. The cultivation of crops for export has often been criticized because at the same time, millions of Africans are malnourished.
The practice of the EU and the USA of subsidizing their own farmers to such an extent that there is overproduction there, for example , is also criticized . B. comes from milk and grain. This overproduction depresses world market prices so much that African farmers are not competitive. Imported food is often much cheaper than local products on African markets. The farmers there can therefore only cultivate crops that do not thrive in other climatic zones. As a result, Africa's agriculture (in addition to self-sufficiency) is limited to a few exportable products, which are often subject to strong price fluctuations.
Natural resources
The mining of mineral resources and oil production are by far the most important export sectors in Africa, these resources are unevenly distributed but highly. There are significant deposits of copper ( Democratic Republic of the Congo , Zambia ) as well as gold and diamonds ( Angola , Botswana , Liberia , Sierra Leone , Zimbabwe , South Africa) in the south and west of the continent . Oil production is also becoming increasingly important: in addition to Libya and Algeria in the north, Nigeria and Gabon in particular are important oil exporters ; more recently, oil fields have also been developed off the coasts of Angola and Equatorial Guinea as well as in South Sudan and Chad .
Natural resources are often a disadvantage for a country's economy: Countries rich in raw materials (not only in Africa) are usually one-sidedly focused on lucrative mining and neglect the expansion of other economic areas (→ resource curse ).
Industry and craft
Africa is the least industrialized continent, only South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mauritius have any significant manufacturing. Despite the large number of cheap labor on site, a large part of the raw materials is exported for further processing. Industrial production only accounts for about a third of GDP, a figure that has practically not risen since the 1960s.
Large international corporations need stable political conditions, a good transport infrastructure, a reliable energy supply and a sufficiently trained and motivated workforce in order to be able to make investments . However, all of these location factors are rarely given in Africa.
In addition, attempts have been made in many African countries to limit foreign investments in order to keep foreign influence in the country low. Strict government regulations deterred numerous investors from attempting to set up their own industry, but often failed due to a lack of financial resources, a lack of technology, poor training of the workforce as well as a lack of local markets and long transport routes.
Financial sector
In large parts of Africa, local banks set the tone, they are mostly corrupt and unstable, which is why governments and industries mainly rely on international banks. Only South Africa, with its flourishing banking sector, is an exception: international sanctions due to apartheid policy forced the withdrawal of the British banks that had dominated there until then.
In the first years of independence, most African governments regulated their banking sector very restrictively and severely restricted their international competitiveness. Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank then saw one of their main tasks as changing this, and indeed were able to bring about some significant changes. It was particularly important to ensure that foreign banks were able to gain a foothold in the respective countries.
Investing in Africa has been difficult to this day, and even African investors tend to invest capital outside the continent. Since the turn of the millennium, however, investments, especially from China, but also from India, have increased sharply, which has also attracted attention in the USA and Europe. Remittances from the African diaspora are also an important economic factor.
Economic environment
The causes of the structural underdevelopment of the market economy in Africa are difficult to grasp for most modern economic theories and are still causing heated debates today. It is difficult to determine what is the cause and what is the effect of poverty. Thus, civil wars , political instability, corruption and poor governance are seen both as a cause and as a knock-on effect of the ongoing economic problems.
Geography and transport infrastructure
Africa's geography is a major obstacle to the movement of goods and makes trade and economy difficult. In the west and in the center of the continent, poorly developed rainforest areas make traffic difficult , and the same applies to the Sahara desert. Although Africa has a number of large watercourses with the rivers Nile , Niger , Congo , Zambezi and Orange , these are not connected by canals in contrast to Europe. In addition, rapids and waterfalls and dams make it difficult to use the rivers as transport routes.
The traffic infrastructure that exists today is largely based on the routes built in colonial times and is accordingly geared to the requirements of the time. Important traffic routes run from the raw material deposits inland to the export ports on the coasts, traffic routes to the hinterland are only available to a limited extent. This complicates both intra-African trade and exports from the particularly large number of countries without access to the sea. Some of the existing roads for motorized traffic are also often in poor condition. Only a small proportion is paved , which is why many roads are poor or impassable during the rainy season .
Legacy of colonialism
Orientation towards the export of raw materials
It is controversial to what extent European colonialism had an impact on later economic development or is still having an impact today. On the one hand, it is argued that most African states were better developed during the colonial period than they are today. Most countries achieved their greatest relative prosperity shortly before independence, i.e. around 1960 , and since then the level of most countries has still been lower. This is seen as proof that the colonial era should be assessed positively.
Opponents argue that many of the causes of today's situation lie in this epoch; some authors, such as Walter Rodney , see colonial politics as the direct cause of today's problems in Africa. The relative prosperity of this period was mainly achieved through the export of raw materials. North and West Africa became the producers of cotton , coffee was grown in the area around the great lakes and cocoa was grown on the coast of West Africa . The one-sided orientation of the respective national economies to a few goods soon had a disadvantageous effect: The monocultures made these areas particularly susceptible to price fluctuations and made economic planning difficult.
A connection between the economy of the colonial era and the current situation is clearly recognizable. This is particularly evident in the example of the Democratic Republic of the Congo : Belgian Congo was economically exploited even after the initial reign of terror by King Leopold II , and the unprepared and hasty withdrawal of the Belgians in 1960 made the situation even worse. To this day, the country is one of the poorest areas in the world. South Rhodesia , today's Zimbabwe, was considered the “breadbasket of Africa” before independence and, due to a high literacy rate and well-developed infrastructure, had relatively good conditions for further successful development, which was, however, more and more gambled away in the following years under Robert Mugabe .
Areas under French administration have shown better economic results, former British colonies are the economically most successful states in Africa, with the British preparing for independence and training local elites earlier than other colonial powers . Scientists disputed whether foreign trade did more harm than good to Africa. The terms of trade for Africa worsened for a long time, as the cost of technology imports from industrialized countries rose, while the revenues from raw materials exports fell.
Demarcation
In the heyday of European imperialism in the late 19th century , after the Berlin Congo Conference, borders were established between newly created colonial areas. These were mostly based on longitudes and latitudes or natural conditions such as rivers and did not take into account the existing agricultural, linguistic, religious or phylogenetic boundaries. In some cases, entire population centers have been cut off from their sources of food or natural resources. Almost all African states were then established within these artificial borders. As a result, numerous, sometimes hostile, peoples live together in one state, while other peoples are in turn distributed over several states. This and the fact that it is usually not comparable with European notion of "in pre-colonial Africa people " or " nation was" difficult to date the formation of nation-states and is a basis for the frequent inter-state conflicts and civil wars.
However, the few states that were not colonized or existed before the colonial era are by no means more successful today (mostly even worse developed) than the rest of the countries, so that the influence of the demarcation should not be overestimated.
Africa is the continent with the most states. Many of them are relatively small, so that economic development requires international cooperation. A number of local organizations have been set up in the past few decades to promote them: the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC), the South African Development Community (SADC) and the Central African Economic Community (ECCAS).
Wars
In many African countries, wars and civil wars broke out after gaining independence . This also contributed to the poverty of the continent, as the governments used their scant funds for warfare. From an economic point of view, the warfare deterred investors, destroyed infrastructures, and created lasting animosity.
Many of these conflicts had their origins in the Cold War. Both military blocs tried with generous support to get their own spheres of interest going. But the funds so obtained had one questionable effect: with so much money available, arms were bought en masse, and donor countries tolerated the corruption that was spreading in Africa. The superpowers also used Africa as a stage for their interests and power struggles. As part of so-called proxy wars , both military blocs support any uprising or separation movement that they consider appropriate to secure their influence.
Almost all developed countries have scaled back support since the end of the Cold War, and while there has been some hope that this will reduce violence in Africa, this has only partially been the case. Civil wars were rampant in Somalia , Sudan , Liberia , Sierra Leone , the Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau . Africa was also not spared from interstate wars: the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbors were involved in the first and second Congo wars , and there were also military clashes between Ethiopia and its former province Eritrea .
Governance
Lack of democracy and the rule of law
The political landscape of Africa has been shaped by dictatorial forms of government for decades, and democratic approaches have so far hardly been successful in large parts of Africa. Despite a noticeable democratization since the end of the Cold War, all African states are ruled more or less dictatorially, with a few exceptions. The American organization Freedom House classifies only 19 countries as democracies in Africa, and only eleven of these are free.
A lack of democracy and the rule of law is always an obstacle to economic development. Countries in which private property is not protected and there is little or no legal security for entrepreneurs are unattractive for investors. The frequent coups , civil wars and unrest also contribute to the miserable situation. The effects were particularly extreme in Zimbabwe. At the end of white rule in 1979 , Rhodesia was one of the most developed countries in Africa. The subsequent decades of mismanagement and the " land reform " called expropriation of white farmers from 2000 to 2008 led to a complete collapse of the economy.
mismanagement
Some African governments have pursued ineffective economic policies since their countries became independent. Here the export income was mainly used to enrich the elites, who then saw no reason to modernize the economic structures. The income was and is then not invested in one's own country, but often transferred abroad. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts estimate that from 1970 to 1996, capital flight from 30 sub-Saharan African countries totaled $ 187 billion, an amount that exceeded their external debt . The Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world, was considered the most extreme example of this. Mobutu Sese Seko is said to have amassed a fortune of around four billion US dollars during his 32-year reign , his successor Laurent-Désiré Kabila as much as 1.2 billion US dollars in a tenure of just over two years. Such governance is known as kleptocracy .
corruption
As in large parts of the world, corruption is widespread at all levels in politics, business and society, including in Africa. Almost all African countries are at the bottom of the corruption perception index . The range of corruption offenses is wide.
Such a system, from which almost only the elites benefit, exacerbates social inequalities, makes investment difficult and undermines trust in the state and government. The emergence of a middle class, a pillar of the state and the economy in all industrialized countries and a prerequisite for a stable economic system, is adversely affected in this way.
According to studies, more than 50 billion dollars are illegally skimmed abroad from Africa every year, and African states lose more than 38 billion dollars in taxpayers' money every year. This network of corruption, circumvention of regulations, a large number of criminal activities or illegal skimming of income only works through an organized concealment of assets with regard to those involved. In addition, there is an internationally secret wealth preservation and consulting industry that often uses tax havens . These companies and offshore providers are not headquartered in Africa and their activities do not serve the purpose of legal tax optimization or economic management, but rather the evasion of regulations and the transfer of assets. The members of this international financial advisory industry create their own legal system by using tax havens and exploiting all possible loopholes and, under the guise of “business-friendly”, they also conduct massive lobbying work to open new loopholes and to abolish criminal offenses and formal requirements .
Diseases
Due to the hot and humid climate, infectious diseases are a bigger problem in the tropics than in other climatic zones. A whole range of diseases, including a. Malaria and dengue fever occur almost exclusively in these areas. Poor hygiene , a poorly developed health system and poor knowledge of the population in health issues exacerbate the problems.
From the 1980s onwards , AIDS became a growing problem in Africa: between 1981 and 2005, the disease claimed around 20 million lives. AIDS is a problem in all African countries south of the Sahara, but the economically well-developed region in the south of the continent is particularly hard hit, where 25.8 million people were infected in 2005. In some countries, more than a third of the working population is affected and life expectancy has fallen by up to ten years. Due to the high mortality rate among the younger population, there is now a lack of qualified workers, which has serious effects on the economies affected . Treatment costs are also a significant burden for the health systems of the countries concerned. The cost of importing drugs has been reduced in recent years through the use of generics .
languages
Compared to its population, Africa is the most linguistic continent: of the approximately 6000 languages described worldwide, around 2000 are spoken in Africa alone. Only in a few countries does a single language prevail (examples are Malagasy in Madagascar , Somali in Somalia and Kinyarwanda in Rwanda ). In some countries, such as Nigeria, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, up to 400 languages are spoken. Some languages are only spoken by a few thousand people. The enormous linguistic diversity makes trade and communication difficult, so that supraregional lingua franca (e.g. Swahili in East Africa , Bambara and Hausa in West Africa ) emerged that are still spoken today.
The linguistic diversity is not reflected in the official languages: In this area, the languages of the colonial powers still predominate. Only in a few countries do native languages have official status, and there, too, they are mostly only recognized as second languages. In politics and education, languages are then used that the majority of the population cannot or only poorly master. This situation exacerbates the already large gap between the elites and the common people.
Effects of Mass Poverty
The cause and effect of the catastrophic economic situation - including diseases , wars , mismanagement and corruption - are often mutually reinforcing.
The low gross domestic product (GDP) results in a low standard of living and a poor quality of life in Africa, excluding the corresponding elites , apart from a few more affluent areas such as South Africa and the Maghreb . Quality of life and economic wealth do not always have to correlate , however . B. mines gigantic quantities of diamonds every year , but is still poor after the years of civil war. Automobiles , televisions and even radios are rare luxury goods in many regions. Most Africans are excluded from using modern means of communication and the Internet due to a digital divide .
African countries are disproportionately represented in the lower part of the ranking according to the United Nations Human Development Index . The infant mortality rate is high, while the life expectancy , the literacy rate and education are alarmingly low level. The UN also sees Africa as the region where inequalities are higher than in other regions. The most educated are often chosen to leave Africa for a better life in the west or the Persian Gulf .
The major periods of drought are particularly deadly. Devastating famines regularly pervade Africa, but especially the Horn of Africa . The immediate causes are mostly disruptions as a result of war, droughts lasting several years and sometimes locusts .
From 1990 to 2002 the average inflation was over 60% per year . However, during this period the inflation rates in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were in the three-digit range. For most African countries, inflation is 10% a year.
Unemployment is alarmingly high in Africa and one of the most important problems of all, especially for the people in the slums of large metropolises such as Lagos in Nigeria and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .
These circumstances have catastrophic consequences for the environment. For farmers near starvation, the fate of the rainforest in search of new arable land is of secondary importance. It is also hard to blame those who are starving if they do not take into account the rarity of certain animal species when processing them for food (see bush meat ). In the Sahel alone , deforestation and overgrazing have led to desertification that is as large as the Sahara extends south.
The illegal poaching of rare and protected animal species, the mining of tropical timber and the slaughter of elephants for the ivory trade is often the only source of income for the impoverished. Local governments, if they are interested in fighting these crimes at all, have too little money to protect their environment.
| year | Share in extreme poverty |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 54.7% |
| 1993 | 59.7% |
| 1996 | 58.9% |
| 1999 | 58.3% |
| 2002 | 55.3% |
| 2005 | 50.8% |
| 2008 | 48.0% |
| 2011 | 43.9% |
| 2013 | 42.7% |
| 2015 | 41.4% |
Attempts to promote the economy
The relative economic failure of Africa has long been an important issue, both inside and outside Africa. There have been many attempts to change this state of affairs, but very few of them have had any results.
socialism
In the first years of their independence , many African nations were able to perceive the rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union and China under communist ideologies. This led to planned economy structures and large investments in heavy industries such as the production of coal and steel , with the intention of stimulating economic growth. But these planned economy measures had little success. Only a handful of states formally adopted socialism and even fewer conspired to conspire against Marxism . Any state intervention in economic life was seen as a prerequisite for economic growth. In particular because private investors were extremely reluctant to work in these regions.
For many African governments it was customary to borrow as much money as possible from abroad and use it to build up their own economies until they manage to repay their debts on their own. In some cases, economic growth was achieved even after independence. However, economic growth was designed in such a way that exports to settle the loans taken out primarily take place. The 1973 oil crisis hit sub-Saharan Africa harder than other countries in Africa. Although Africa also has some oil exporting countries, most of them were highly dependent on imported petroleum products . The affected economies stalled and caused famine in the 1980s. The collapse of the Soviet Union , which had consistently supported the socialist experiments, undermined the legitimation for further planned economy forms.
African socialism
A special feature of socialism in Africa was so-called African socialism. It embodied the belief that economic resources could be used in a “traditional” African way compared to socialism. Many African politicians between 1950 and 1960 believed in African socialism despite a broad interpretation of what African socialism was supposed to be.
After its independence during the 1960s, the new African could regime difficult out a great victory over the Europeans if their economic policies in much of the European resembled. Capitalism in particular , which was cultivated by all imperial nations, was very unpopular. Socialism, on the other hand, appeared to be the ideal means of breaking with this imperial tradition.
The followers of African socialism claimed that their socialism was not the opposite of or an answer to capitalism, but something entirely different. The nationalists, on the other hand, claimed that their socialism was entirely African. It corresponds to the African identity, which is something stronger than anti-capitalism. In short, African socialism was just a revival of the spirit of something that was African.
Various justifications have been used for the correctness of African socialism. Some believed that Africa was simply too underdeveloped to compete with the developed economies. Others appealed to a sense of cohesion that simply cannot be created by a competitive system. But others also believed that economic growth in Africa could be planned to prevent the waste of scarce resources, or that class struggles could be avoided in this way.
liberalism
Since the socialist experiments were unsuccessful, the solution to economic problems was seen in the 1980s in the free market , as described in the Washington Consensus in 1990 . Forty South African nations agreed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plan for a rigorous economic restructuring in 1990 . The IMF's recommendations envisaged a 50% cut in currencies, the sale of state industries and the removal of public subsidies.
After 20 years these measures were just as unsuccessful as the socialist experiments previously carried out. Average annual economic growth only increased from 2.3% to 2.8%. Only a handful of African countries achieve a higher level of prosperity, but many have become poorer as a result of these economic policies.
Why this policy failed is still controversial today. Some assumed that these purely economic measures could not work without democratization without a legal framework. Others, however, viewed the Washington Consensus as fundamentally flawed. Still others saw the lack of liberalization as a problem. It has also been pointed out that while the highly developed trading nations have insisted on opening up the African market and removing government grants, these have only been unilateral. In particular, there was no opening in the markets of the more developed trading nations for African agricultural products. In the WTO negotiations, the African leaders regularly demanded the abolition of state subsidies and the opening of the markets for African products. It was argued that the abolition of state subsidies would have the following beneficial effects for the development of the world and Africa:
- The developed nations would produce less food and would have to import more from other countries, which would stimulate their economies
- Without artificial support, food prices would rise and thus profit could be made from trade with developed nations
- The developed economies could have more balanced agricultural policies and produce food for export. The resulting increase can be used to better arm oneself against famine.
Self-sufficiency
With economic self-sufficiency , as advocated by supporters of the dependence theory , some African countries have made some limited attempts. In the 1980s banned Nigeria the import of food products to the domestic production boost. The 1982 Lagos Plan of Action called on all of Africa to stop imports from the rest of the world. But few countries actually put this idea into practice, and even Nigeria occasionally agreed to liberalization .
The most promising attempt at self-sufficiency was undertaken by Malawi under its first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda , who, knowing that his country had no raw materials, concluded that he should base the state on smallholders . With the agricultural organization ADMARC, he created a logistical and economic infrastructure in the country that gave its citizens access to markets and calculable incomes. This policy began to fail when the World Bank increasingly forced the cultivation of export products ( cash crops ) in the mid-1980s , and finally lost all viability when, under his successor, an entire annual harvest disappeared from the silos in the late 1990s.
Foreign aid
Since independence there has been a constant flow of development aid to Africa. In many cases, however, these funds have been embezzled by unscrupulous leaders. During the Cold War , development aid was an effective means of buying the loyalty of those in power, which is why people generously ignored the embezzlement involved. However, many claim that these funds were not stolen, but were simply misdirected. After the end of the Cold War , most developed countries cut their grants. For many decades it was believed that major state projects could drive development forward. Today, however, the perception is that small projects will better develop local economies.
A much criticized example of foreign aid is the delivery of food. It is believed in some circles that food aid does not really solve problems, but rather solidifies external dependence and harms local agriculture and industry. Fighting local food shortages with food deliveries is usually counterproductive. As the Nobel laureate in economics , Amartya Sen , has shown, famines arise more often from a decline in buyer power or other rights to food ( food entitlement decline ) and less often from a decline in supply ( food availability decline ). If food is delivered in such situations - as opposed to financial donations - the effect is that local food production collapses. Last but not least, food deliveries also serve the suppliers, who can reduce their surpluses in this way and thus have every interest in continuing the deliveries.
Debt relief
More recently, there have been advocates for debt relief . Every year Africa sends more money to the industrialized countries to pay off its debts than it receives development aid from those countries. Debt relief is not a panacea, but many believe that getting rid of this burden could help African economies grow and prosper. However, there are a number of arguments against full and unconditional debt relief.
One of these arguments is that this debt relief penalizes nations that have managed well with their borrowed funds and therefore do not need debt relief. Another argument is that unconditional debt relief does not, of course, automatically induce affected nations to invest more in their social programs and services.
And in the end, it was argued that debt relief would make it harder to borrow more. Since the external debt causes payments out of Africa on a scale roughly equal to the amount of development aid, some claim that debt relief would cut development aid at 90%.
Intergovernmental cooperation
The approach to cooperation goes back to the independence period of the first African states and was accompanied by changeable results. There are various intergovernmental organizations within the framework of which regional problems are to be addressed ( CILSS , IGAD ) and regional economic integration with free trade zones, customs and currency unions is to be promoted.
Some such organizations for commercial purposes are:
- Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
- Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD)
- New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
- East African Community (EAC)
- South African Development Community (SADC)
- West African Economic Community (ECOWAS)
- West African Economic and Monetary Union
- Central African Economic and Monetary Community
One problem with these approaches is that the regional economic organizations often overlap and also compete. So get involved Kenya and Uganda only little in the IGAD, as they focus on the East African Community, and Tanzania joined in 2000 out of COMESA, as it is already among SADC and EAC.
African currencies
Africa has two monetary unions , the UEMOA and the CEMAC . Both use the CFA franc as a common currency .
The table below includes the currencies of all African countries.
See also: List of historical currencies in Africa .
literature
- Reuben Adeolu Alabi, Joy Alemazung, Hans-Heinrich Bass et al .: Africa and the Global Financial Crisis - Impact on Economic Reform Processes , African Development Perspectives Yearbook, Vol. 15, Lit 2011 ( ISBN 978-3-643-10648-3 ).
- Walter Eberlei 2009: Africa's Ways Out of the Poverty Trap . Frankfurt / M. ISBN 978-3-86099-611-9
- JD Fage 1978: A History of Africa (Routledge, 4th edition, 2001 ISBN 0-415-25247-4 ) (Hutchinson, 1978, ISBN 0-09-132851-9 ) (Knopf 1st American edition, 1978, ISBN 0-394 -32277-0 )
- Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa 1999: The African Economy: Policy, Institutions and the Future (Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-18323-5 )
- Jacob E. Mabe (Ed.): Das kleine Afrika-Lexikon , licensed edition for the Federal Agency for Civic Education 2004 (ISBN of the unabridged edition from Peter Hammer Verlag 3-87294-885-7)
- Richard E. Moshomba 2000: Africa in the Global Economy (Lynne Rienner, 2000, ISBN 1-55587-718-4 )
- Walter Rodney 1982: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa . (Washington: Howard UP, 1982, ISBN 0-88258-096-5 )
- David Signer 2004: The economy of witchcraft or why there are no skyscrapers in Africa (Peter-Hammer-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7795-0017-5 )
- David E. Sahn, Paul A. Dorosh, Stephen D. Younger 1997: Structural Adjustment Reconsidered: Economic Policy and Poverty in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-58451-5 )
- Rainer Tetzlaff / Cord Jakobeit 2005: Post-colonial Africa. Politics - Economy - Society . Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-8100-4095-9
- Ernest Aryeetey (Ed.): Asia and Africa in the Global Economy. United Nations University Press, Tokyo / New York 2003, ISBN 978-92-808-1089-9 ( online ).
See also
Web links
- African Development Perspectives Yearbook - a yearbook published in Germany with studies on the African economy, has been published since 1990, Volume 18: 2015
- Africa Economic Analysis
- African Development Bank Group
- Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute
- IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) - September 2003 - Public Debt in Emerging Markets
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Sub-Saharan Africa . Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development . Retrieved February 21, 2014.
- ^ Geoffrey Livingston, Steven Schonberger and Sara Delaney: Sub-Saharan Africa: The state of smallholders in agriculture . ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Paper presented at the IFAD Conference on New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture January 24-25, 2011, accessed on August 14, 2014. pp. 9 and 18.
- ↑ Olivier de Schutter, UN Commissioner for the Right to Food: Neocolonialism in Africa: "Big investors oust local farmers" . In: spiegel-online from July 29, 2009.
- ↑ Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - Sub-Saharan Africa | Data. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ^ Hans-Heinrich Bass, Hans-Hermann Steinbeck: Africa in the wake of the euro crisis . GIGA Focus Global, No. 2, Hamburg 2013, ISSN 1862-3581 . Retrieved February 21, 2014.
- ↑ Africa: a continent with potential ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Federal government website. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
- ^ The accusation of cultural dominance and neocolonialism . In: Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn, December 5, 2005.
- ↑ Steffen Kröhnert, Simon Müller, Florian Sievers, Reiner Klingholz: Five lions on the jump? . Website of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ↑ Consultation with the World Bank
- ↑ Nepad : Economic overnance an the partnership for African development ( Memento of the original of January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 126 kB)
- ↑ The Fischer Weltalmanach aktuell Afrika, Fischer-Verlag Frankfurt; 2nd edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-72305-8
- ↑ a b GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) - Sub-Saharan Africa | Data. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Oil state Nigeria is the strongest economy in Africa - ahead of South Africa . In: Reuters.de, April 7, 2014. Accessed April 8, 2014.
- ^ Philipp Sandner: Africa's slumbering economic potential , September 13, 2012. Deutsche Welle website . Retrieved February 22, 2014.
- ↑ GDP (current US $) - Sub-Saharan Africa | Data. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ GDP, PPP (current international $) - Sub-Saharan Africa | Data. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ GDP per capita (current US $) - Sub-Saharan Africa | Data. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ↑ GDP (current US $) - Sub-Saharan Africa, World | Data. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .
- ^ F. Cooper: Africa in the capitalist world . In: izindaba.info from January 17, 2011, Dortmund.
- ↑ Scientific Advisory Council of the Federal Government on Global Change: World in Transition: A Challenge for German Science. Annual report 1996, Springer, Bremerhaven. Pp. 69, 121, 142, 168.
- ↑ http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/economics/2014/04/when-money-goes-west
- ↑ Peter Scholl-Latour: African death suit - The sell-out of the black continent , Goldmann, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-442-15219-3 , page 302
- ↑ See Bastian Obermayer , Frederik Obermaier : Panama Papers. (2016) KiWi-Paperback; ISBN 978-3-462-05002-8 ; Released: April 6, 2016; P. 207ff.
- ↑ PovcalNet. Retrieved March 25, 2018 .
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