Driving Ms.Mona

So I finally found the inspiration for my next post (this very one) 3 days ago as I drove to work. Right in front of my work building was a garbage truck blocking the entrance to the parking lot. About to throw a how-could-you look to the driver of the truck, I turned to look up only to see a familiar face. The garbage truck driver turned out to be the very same driver that used to drive me and my siblings to school. As far back as primary school. More than 10 years ago. We instantly exchanged pleasantries and a bit of pep-talk. Curious as to why he was now driving a garbage truck, he replied saying his kids are all grown up and in high school now. Something’s gotta pay the bills.

Back at my desk at work, I keep replaying our pep-talk and lots of questions running in my mind. The most pressing of them being: After all these years of driving, why is he now driving a garbage truck? I know he gave me a reason but my worry is deeper than just paying bills.

My driver, Kwesi’s story is probably typical for most hand-to-mouth living Ghanaians and others all over the world. Do our economy not present opportunities for folks to break out of such vicious cycle of poverty? In particular citizens with more technical and ‘less formal’ education. I don’t exactly know the situation in other developing countries but in Ghana, formal education and a degree certification is almost a necessity for success, But should that be the case? What then happens to the hardworking Kwesis out there who for various circumstantial reasons end up learning an essential trade? Is that a passport to eternal hand-to-mouth living? No wonder Kwesi is doing all he can to make sure his kids get a formal education. Woe to them to follow in his footsteps.

In my opinion…

All too often in our quest as a country for growth and to be categorized a ‘developed’ country, we lose sight of that which matters most. The wellbeing of the very ones we govern. The road to alleviating poverty is a long and daunting one. We Know. But in the interim, we really need to create opportunities for individual success. Educated or ‘not-Educated’ / Driver or Student. There is the need for micro-level policies to help break intergenerational poverty, you know that poverty that just keeps passing on from one generation to the other. We need a situation where every skill, technical or intellectual, can be aptly tapped into to further our development.

Giving that in most developing countries, our man power or labor is made up of mostly ‘un-skilled’ labor (I’ve always disliked this word since my high school economics class), it is rather ironic that our policies, from education to employment, seem to lay emphasis on the ‘skilled’ minority. For instance, in Ghana, poor small-scale farmers produce about 80% of the food we consume and contribute 60% of agric GDP yet receive only about 15% of government agriculture investment.

All I’m saying is, whilst on our quest to becoming a ‘rich’ nation it is equally important to create that space to engage and develop our best assets i.e the citizens.  We are mostly all we have and we best make use of us (citizens).

Deal or No Deal?

It’s no secret China’s immense involvement in Africa. It unsurprisingly comes up during any hot debate on Africa’s development and the way forward for Africa. Curiously though, the conversation is mostly taken from one particular angle i.e ‘Is China’s involvement in Africa good or bad?

If you are novel to the arguments from both sides on this debate the first question that would probably pop up, and rightly so, is why China? I mean every country is more or less present in Africa so why the particular interest in China? Vice versa, China is everywhere as well so why the particular interest in their involvement in Africa? Well, a simple answer to this question in my opinion is because both Africa and China are ‘hot’ topics now and their interaction is bound to be ‘hotter’ :). Honestly, their involvement is inevitable. Africa needs what China has to offer; monetary resources, and China needs what Africa has to offer; natural resources. A simple case of Supply meets Demand. So why all this fuss then?

To summarize…

The argument against China ranges from labour abuse to poor-quality 'made-in-china' infrastructure. Numerous international newspapers report china’s ‘inappropriate’ work ethics. Others are not very pleased with the flooding of their local markets by cheaper goods from China. But the biggest headline has been ‘China is only a new form of colonialism. They are only using us for our raw materials’. African leaders counter by saying “ well no one else is prepared to give us this amount of money we need for this duration of time with no stringent conditionalities”.  The deal doesn’t get sweeter than China.

The way I see it…

Well both sides most certainly have valid arguments but in my opinion Africa needs to move away from trying to figure out whether China is good or bad. Whether we accept it or not, China has come to stay. Their economic hegemony is exploding and I personally wouldn’t want to be caught on the wrong side of that explosion. What Africa and her leaders need to start figuring out, if they havent already, is

WHAT DO WE WANT FOR AFRICA? And how can we get China to give us exactly what we want?

For instance, does Africa give more priority to protecting its labour force than just monetary gains? If so then Africa needs to allocate more resources to outlining and enforcing the appropriate labour laws needed to safeguard its people. And simply tell anyone who wishes to do business that “Hey, my people are my priority, you mess with them, this deal is off” and actually enforce this. If on the other hand, our priority is to sell off as much of our natural resources as we can possible do for any good price without stressing the importance of labour force protection then we need to shut up and stop blaming China. Or any other country for that matter. We need to go back and draw a simple scale of preference for investor participation.

I know the arguments I’m putting across may be oversimplified, as a country would definitely have conflicting priorities coupled with a complicated political economy. But the point im trying to make here is that in my opinion if we as a continent allow colonialism/neo-colonialism to prevail a second time around, then we should be prepared to take up part of the blame and not point fingers at others. 

Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

Hand go, Hand come

Just read yet another newspaper article protesting the current Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) being negotiated with African countries by the EU. This agreement is to replace the previous non-reciprocal African Caribbean Partnership (ACP) trade agreements. Under this new EPA, all parties are to drop whatever trade barriers existed between them and grant unrestricted market access. The EU has been pushing this agenda for the past ten years even though so far only 10 of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries have signed on to this agreement. The EU argues that “the EPAs are set out to help ACP countries integrate into the world economy and share in the opportunities offered by globalisation”. In addition, they “ are designed to be drivers of change that will kick-start reform and help strengthen rule of law in the economic field thereby attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and helping to create a "virtuous circle" of growth”.

Let’s cut to the chase…

This, in my opinion, is another attempt to crowd out the development space available to developing countries. Most developing countries under this partnership are barely industrialised and most of them are highly dependent on agriculture. An unrestricted market access for EU products (with the infamous EU – CAP still in place) is only going to shoot up the export bill of many of these countries and worsen already bad balance of payments. What then happens to the over 20 million subsistence farmers and small land owners in these countries? On the other hand, there is no doubt that these African countries gain reciprocal access to the EU market. But in the presence of (with emphasis) the CAP and other quiet interesting Non-Tariff Barriers in the EU market, its a no-brainer - admittedly a bold assumption - who would be the net beneficiary.

Most developing countries are already facing the eminent danger of the influx of cheap Chinese product stifling local initiatives to move up the value chain of production. Imagine adding to that a no holds-bar access for about 20 industrialised and semi-industrialised nations? Based on pure speculation, could this be an attempt to recapture the market share of developing countries from Asia (in particular China)? Another angle to the power struggle between the West and the East over the South?

Interestingly, this proposed partnership seems to concur with the ‘Kicking away the ladder’ gospel, where those already at the top try to defend their status and to wipe away the strategies they themselves used in getting to the top.

But who is to be blamed?

In this rat race of a global economy, every nation must look after their own and to do whatever they can to keep growing. Everyone wants the biggest bite off the cake. If tables were turned with EU as a developing continent and Africa as a developed continent, would we not have pushed a similar agenda? Now that’s something to think about :)

If Keynes was African, ...

This post might be (it very much is!) a very subjective and somewhat narrow minded view on the notion of development and may come back to haunt me in my future search for a job.

Anyone familiar with the Keynesian/neoclassical agenda will know its central theme of: ECONOMIC GROWTH OR BURST!!! In that, all economies must strive to attain economic growth (usually no matter what it takes). Thus the measure of economy’s success is in the numbers, its GDP growth rate, its GDP per capita and anything GDP. This has definitely reflected in the way developing countries draw their policies and where the government puts their money. In my president’s recent state of the nation address, his central emphasis was on the fact that the Ghana had achieved an unprecedented- in the nation’s history- growth rate of 14%. But I ask,

1.       Where is this growth coming from?

2.       Who is benefitting?

3.       Is this sustainable?

The way I see it…

Of course the answer to the first question is most likely OIL! and other natural resources. I don’t know the answer to the second one but im sure lots of Ghanaians will attest to the fact that times have been very difficult these past couple of years. And for the last question… I seriously doubt that.

This notion of economic growth reflecting a country’s success I think is not very applicable in the developing country context especially for African countries. There needs to be a different set of variables or indicators in measuring the development of a country that takes into consideration these 3 questions above especially the last one. Developing countries need frameworks for development especially suited for them to capture their priorities. What’s the point of a 14% economic growth if this growth is from the export of natural resources and most of the monetary gains go out to these foreign oil companies? * What’s the point of a 14% growth without strong governance and institutions to see to the redistribution of these gains from growth? What’s the point of being classed a middle income country if your social development indicators are appalling?

I just think developing countries need to reflect their own commitment to developing their citizens not keep waiting for the ‘invisible hand’ to trickle down whatever comes from economic growth.

p.s - my view on these oil revenue extracting foreign companies is simple. It is our oil, our land, our country. They either deal by our terms or let the oil stay in the ground. Afterall, if these companies are taking most of the gains then with or without it we still end up poor.