Globalization And The Development of Africa

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 6^th Edition defines the word global as a phenomenon that includes many parts. Moving a step further from this definition, globalization could be described as a concept or phenomenon that includes all parts of the world and also operates around the world; hence the whole world is looked upon as a single community that is connected by electronic communication systems to form a global village.

Globalization goes a step further from these concepts; it also implies and provides the building blocks for the emergence of a homogenous world culture. It is often referred to as the new world order.

It must, however, be argued that globalization as a concept originated from the more developed western countries, as they argued that the economic backwardness of the world in general and the developing countries in particular was a product of the isolation of the developing countries from the world economy. This ” backwardness” it was argued could easily be remedied by greater global economic and cultural integration.

The motives for global integration [globalization] includes

• The enhanced efficiency in production made possible by increased specialization in accordance with the law of comparative advantage.
• Increased production levels due to better exploitation of economies of scale made possible by the increased size of the market.
• An improved international bargaining position made possible by the larger size, leading to better terms of trade
• Enforced changes in economic efficiency brought about by enhanced competition.
• Changes affecting both the amount and quality of the factors of production due to technological advances.

Whatever its political connotations, globalization, fundamentally, is an economic phenomenon. Desire becomes demand only with the addition of purchasing power; this is true of countries as well as individuals. These economic realities enable countries to pursue their political policies of self interest with varying degrees of success.

Hence, in this discourse, I shall consider the economic and political dimensions of globalization with all other considerations indirect or subordinate to these dimensions.

Globalization and the development of Africa:

The inequality of nations challenges the theory of globalization as a world system; it is common knowledge that African countries fall within the category of countries regarded as underdeveloped. If we examine the structure of an underdeveloped economy, typically such an economy is an importer of capital and technology as well as consumer goods from the developed world.  These imported capital and technology play a crucial role in its development.

Domestic substitution for foreign capital and foreign technical know-how is a very costly affair often indeed impossible. This is true whether we think of replication or genuine substitution allowing for the different needs of a poorer country. For most African countries, the export sector is the leading sector which sets the pace for development and shapes the rest of the economy, both the pattern and pace of growth. Typically, size by size, the poorer a country, the more dependent it is on foreign markets, and foreign sources of supply. If the export sector stagnates, so that the inflow of resources from abroad is constrained, the pace of growth and rate of structural change respond accordingly. These factors are highly sensitive to such decline in the availability of foreign resources.

The terms on which the developing countries can obtain foreign exchange, capital and technology reflect the relationship between the rich and poor countries in the world economy.

In the face of the existing distribution of economic power, it is the rich countries who determine the terms, because in the short run, the developing countries in Africa need the products and services of the developed countries much more than the latter needs the output of the former.

Recent statistics obtained have in fact confirmed that Africa’s share in the total world trade is just about 1%.  This can be appreciated if we take a look at the international commodity and markets factors, African countries are mainly price takers until very recent trade negotiations and trade policy formulations .This dependence of African countries on developed countries/western countries has far reaching consequences for the development prospects of the former. The existence of such great disparities and one-sided dependence has placed a moral question on the concept of globalization.

Poverty in African countries also reflects essentially the technological gap between them and the rich countries. Even the oil-rich countries are no exceptions in this regard. This results in the developing countries inability to produce by themselves goods which require modern technical know-how and even less to develop an alternative technology substitute.

The trade patterns of African countries show that they usually export crude or processed agriculture or mineral based products. These countries have not succeeded in adapting or replicating for their own countries the technological development that have occurred in the rich countries. This is another fact that we are confronted with that has tended to negate the principle of globalization vis a vis the development of Africa.  Although ,the division of the world into developed and underdeveloped countries is an oversimplification ,vast differences in natural endowment ,economic conditions, cultural heritage, social organizations and political traditions are factors that have also tended to broaden the inequalities that exist between the developed countries and Africa in particular ,hence globalization has exacerbated “global poverty” particularly in these African countries

The difference in the material conditions of people living in various parts of the world is reflected graphically in two socio-economic indicators the rate of national literacy and the per capita energy consumption rate. Together these two indices provide a telling measure of sophistication of the production structure of a nation, and they are much significant than indicators based on the sectoral origin of gross domestic product [GDP}.

Literacy in African countries is considerably lower than that in developed/western societies as is per capita energy consumption. This structural characteristic of the economy reflects the inability of African countries to exploit their economic potential and also to enjoy the so called “benefits of globalization”

In fact, about 40 African countries fall within the purview of the poorest countries in the world. The global economic turmoil of recent years has affected developing countries with particular severity. In Africa, the free working of market forces in no way enables countries to counterview the constraints of globalization and multinational capital. The proponents of globalization must recognize that only global redistribution can ensure the development of Africa and that the developing world’s primary needs are far more social rather than private capital accumulation, which globalization entails.

Another dimension to the issue of globalization vis a vis the development of Africa is the activities[s] of multinational companies [MNCs]. These MNCs are agents of developed nations who are advocating a greater role for the free play of market forces without due regard to social factors within these African nations. As a result of these factors, Africa stands the risk of distorted development.

The calamities which this “new world order” is visiting on billions of people around the globe, particularly African nations cannot be quantified. As a matter of fact, globalization has led to a situation whereby the top 20% of humanity now controls 84% of the world’s wealth, while the bottom 20% makes do with a shade of over 1% of the world’s wealth.

The danger in which “wholesale” globalization portends for African countries and their development has been elucidated by Susan George, a Harvard trained economist, in the Lugarno Report [2003]. By the way, Lugano is a town located in Switzerland and sometime in 2003, a group of intellectuals [drawn from all continents in the world] gathered in the resort town to brainstorm about the world’s problems. They came out with what is now referred to as the Lugano report in which they documented the “evils” of globalization vis a vis the developing nations and particularly Africa in which they summarized that the main beneficiaries of globalization are its proponents and the more developed capitalist /Western nations, and that in order to sustain it through the next century and beyond, a sustained strategy needs to be vigorously pursued and implemented.

These has already started: it includes the reduction of population in African countries through the Population Reduction Strategy[PRS], which includes the promotion of genocidal conflicts, and wars, the curtailment of humanitarian assistance to victims of hunger, famine, epidemics and other natural and unnatural tragedies. The purging of the UN of notions like human rights, and equality of nations, the systematic degradation of the quality of foods and medicine sent to 3rd world countries, etc.

In conclusion, it is imperative to remind those who control and direct the free market globalization, that what Africa really needs for development is GLOBAL REDISTRIBUTION, and not this presently skewed globalization.  It is this global redistribution that can bring about greater global peace and security. To African nations, I recommend to them a renaissance or better still African Renaissance as the development of Africa does not lie in the hands of anybody but Africans themselves