A new agenda to eradicate poverty in Africa

Over 75 million more Africans lived in poverty at the end of the 1990s than a decade earlier. Increasing aid and reforming trade through international campaigns and donor programmes is not working. The role of the state must be changed if poverty in Africa is to be reduced.

A book from ITDG Publishing argues that ‘clientelist’ politics in Africa is central to the failure to tackle poverty. This form of politics was a result of colonial rule that relied heavily on patronage dispensed by local chieftains. While donors have encouraged reform through governance programmes, ‘clientelism’—which essentially undermines developmental capacity—has continued into modern African politics.

The biggest reduction in poverty in recent years has been in East and South-East Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and China, which had ‘developmental’ states that ensured economic growth through state intervention in trade and business and benefits for poor people through land reform and education. By contrast, most African states have been forced to liberalise, yet it is problems within African politics, rather than intervention per se, that have made the policies of many states ‘anti-developmental’.

African ‘developmental’ states will require political leadership committed to challenging clientelist corruption, or a strong civil society. They will also need freedom from donors to set their own policies, allowing effective state intervention rather than free market liberalisation. But the current situation in the region’s ‘success stories’—Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, and Ghana—show mixed experiences, and in particular the persistence of clientelist politics. The author goes further to argue that:

• In many cases, donor aid has ended up supporting clientelist politics.
• Donor and NGO arguments for more aid and the removal of agricultural subsidies ignore the fact that these will have relatively small impacts on poverty.
• Governance reforms have failed through a lack of political commitment.
• Political reforms to introduce democracy have failed to eradicate clientelist structures
• Economic reforms that have reduced state intervention and introduced liberalisation have been used by clientelist political groups to their benefit.

For African states to become ‘developmental’ they will need committed leaders and a change in the nature of politics. The most likely result will be similar to that found in Botswana, which has a formally democratic state, in practice dominated by a single party committed to developmental policies. But if there is a strengthening of civil society, then many states could come to look like Ghana, where trades unions and farmers associations may be helping to develop a more active citizenship. While this change can only come from within Africa, donors and NGOs can focus their programmes to support such reforms. An agenda for action would include:

• A change to the aid system that provides a basic level of aid to all African counties, with a second level of incentives for those working toward developmental goals.
• Donors should also change what is meant by accountability, which has often led to policies such as decentralisation passing accountability to local ‘clients’ rather than communities.
• Developed and richer developing countries such as India and China should provide free access to their markets for African states, without demanding similar access in return.
• The G8 should ensure regulations on financial transactions from Africa to overseas banks are enforced and sanctions are applied.
• NGOs should change their campaigning to reflect this agenda.

Source(s):
‘The State They’re In: An Agenda for International Action on Poverty in Africa’, ITDG Publishing, by Matthew Lockwood, 2005

id21 Research Highlight: 6 October 2006

Further Information:
Mathew Lockwood

Contact the contributor: mflockwood@yahoo.co.uk

Other related links:
'Politics vs aid? January 2002 Insights Issue #39'

'Lifting the veil of silence on corruption and humanitarian aid'

'Donors can lead in the practice of good governance'

GSRDC Topic Guide on Aid instruments and aid effectiveness