africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
countries’ policy space, leaving these countries limited capacity to generate domestic
revenues. In Uganda, for instance, tariff revenues are estimated to constitute up
to 40 percent of tax revenues, and slashing them not only limits the ability to foster
new industries but also eliminates an important source of funds for financing social
programs. At the end, Africa has lost her capacity to export anything meaningful
and compete in the world stage.
Fourth, western style democracy has been a pre-condition for African countries
seeking foreign aid and loans—with the presumption that democratic values are
alien to Africans. What is not told normally is that democratic values have long been
indigenous to Africans. The prescriptive nature of the democratic values required
of Africans by donors can be compared to what Rudyard Kipling characterizes in
his poem the “White Man’s Burden,” as helping a degenerate race, incapable of
development and civilized behavior. But, looking back, Western multiparty democracy
does not seem to work for Africa. Some African heads of state formed more than
100 parties in their countries to satisfy donors. But there was overemphasis on the
power of the ballot without a mechanism to distribute power to the people. This situation
has created a constituency of serial losers. It has increased political volatility
because the losers feel the system is rigged against them. Other than encouraging
low participation in the electoral process, such a system also lowers the threshold
for violence from a constituency that has very little to lose. It encourages corruption
and perpetuates a politically fragmented and unequal society. What we must learn
from this is that there is no standard form of democracy. Africans must be able to
decide for themselves what kind of democracy they need to boost economic growth.
What Africa needs is clean government that delivers services and is accountable to
the people—even if it does not necessarily resemble Western democracy.
Looking ahead, for Africa to sustain its economic growth momentum it needs to
confront important challenges. With a birth rate of about 3.9 percent per year,
Africa needs to grow by more than 7 percent to sustain the increase in population.
Massive infrastructure deficits in the continent need to be filled. The private sector
is still poorly developed and largely underfinanced, with few projects embodying
public-private partnerships (PPPs). There is too much dependence on the natural
resources boom, and a failure to consider a future without natural resource rents.
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