LAPPEENRANTA-LAHTI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY LUT

BH60L2000 Grand Challenges of Sustainability

UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES AS A ROOT CAUSE TO

GRAND CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY

0536036 Anisiya Pavlova SuSci M.Sc. II

Lahti 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 3
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS ............................................................................ 4
3. RESULTS ................................................................................................................ 5
3.1. Definition of Resources ........................................................................................... 7
3.2. Distribution of Resources ........................................................................................ 8
3.3. Overview of Colonization Period and Post-Colonial Era in Africa ........................ 8
3.3.1. European Colonization of Africa .......................................................................... 9
3.3.2. “Resource Curse”, Food and Security Crises and Effects of Climate Change ... 10
4. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 15
5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 17
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 18
 1. INTRODUCTION

Since the beginning of time, all the conflicts between people, tribes and governments have

been around gaining power over resources: land, food, natural resources, knowledge,

services, healthy women for better progeny etc., be it from a position of having to involve in

a conflict for survival and security, to gain more resources for prosperity or an old human

tendency to gain power for the sake of it. If we compare the state of the world the way it is

now, with how it was some four centuries ago, the societies over the world have matured.

Since 1950-s egalitarian regimes have stabilized post-war industrialized countries in terms of

development and legalization of institutions of healthcare, education, housing and other

public and formal structures, creation of the various human rights movements and

conversation around issues of sustainability.

However, in 2020, it is becoming blatantly obvious that current form of capitalist consumer

economy leads to unfortunate consequences: it is not sustainable, demography is failing

common people’s wealth, and there is a warning increase of inequality in societies around the

world, putting those who are on the disadvantageous position in this distribution of wealth in

even more than ever vulnerable position.

Overexploitation of earth’s finite and sensitive natural resources, long-going economic

dependency on fossil fuels, growing gap between the wealthy and overconsuming

Westernized societies and their less fortunate manufacturing source of export – developing

societies, all of this has led to worldwide environmental, civil rights, financial and war crisis,

to name a few, which cannot be underestimated.

This report aims to try and evaluate how world resource distribution patterns and inequality

are rooted in and make feedback loops with large sustainability challenges that need to be

acknowledged and tackled in order to reach sustainable development goals.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This paper is a part of the problem-based learning cycle of a course “Grand Challenges of

Sustainability”. The cycle included a film, introduced as a problem, that tells a story of a

German yachtswoman handling a crisis of a sinking boat full of refugees in the open sea and

dealing with a moral dilemma of risking her safety and saving people’s lives with very

limited resources and no help from authorities. The screening was followed by a group

discussion, where the roots of the problems portrayed in the film were pinpointed and which

concluded in forming a topic of this report.

It can be stated, that in time, democratic governments have learned to lead their politics in a

way that keeps their citizens safe and satisfied enough, and especially, with lessons learned

from tragedies of XX century’s wars, the landscape of political scene in the Western world is

relatively peaceful. However, current levels of consumption and economic dependencies

between highly developed West and manufacturing countries, where the majority of

commodity goods is sourcing raw materials and production, along with climate-based

conflicts, extreme poverty in regions such as Middle East, Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa,

arises the question: how does uneven distribution of resources effect the modern history? The

following chapter will try and find causes of global sustainability challenges in resource

distribution dynamics with an example of historically overexploited, one of the poorest

regions in the world – Sahel.

The method used in this learning cycle is answering the question by unraveling information

about historical development of the current economic and social resources distribution around

the globe. First, the problems raised by the trigger-film were analyzed and resource as a

broad term was defined. Next, history of resources distribution was covered, including

history of colonialism, with specifics on African continent and especially in Sahel region.

Economic resources, as well as human resources and services flows were chronographically

traced down, in the context of colonial period and post-colonial era.

3. RESULTS

According to world inequality report developed by World Inequality Lab (Alvaredo et al.

2018), in recent decades, income inequality has increased in almost all the countries in the

world, drastically – in Russia, China, North America and India. In the Middle East, Brazil

and sub-Saharan Africa the inequality rate has been stable – it stays at extremely high levels,

with Middle East being the region with most level of inequality, where the top 10% of people

get 61% of national income. Despite strong income growth in China, global level of

inequality has dramatically risen since 1980, with the top 1% richest individuals in the world

capturing twice as much growth as the bottom 50% individuals. (Alvaredo et al. 2018)

Figure 1. Top

10% income

shares across

the world, 1980-

2016 (Alvaredo

et al. 2018)
According to All of Our World in Data of Oxford University, many of the poorest countries

in Sub-Saharan Africa – such as Chad, Niger and the Central African Republic – have the

average carbon footprint (around 0.1 t/a), which is more than 160 times lower than the USA,

Australia and Canada. It is hard to comprehend, but it means that in just 2.3 days the average

American or Australian emits as much as the average Malian or Nigerien in a year. Africa is

responsible only for 3-4% of global carbon dioxide emissions, if we look at the annual total

production-based territorial CO2 emissions chart by world region (figure 1). (Roser et al.

2019)

Figure 2. Cumulative CO2 emissions by world region (Roser et al. 2019)

We can see from this chart that historically, since 1751 the largest cumulative responsibility

for the global CO2 emissions belongs to USA (400 billion tonnes), the second largest – China

- has twice less, next are the 28 countries of the European Union (EU-28), which is also a
large historical contributor at 22%. From the historical cumulative point of view, many of the

current large annual emitters – such as India and Brazil – are not large contributors. Africa’s

regional contribution per capita has been very small, both in the past and in modern history,

and accounts only for 0,01% of total emissions from 1751 to 2017, despite the fact that it has

16% of population. (Roser et al. 2019)

Despite the negligible contribution to global CO2 emissions, sub-Saharan Africa already has

been over past decades and is being seriously damaged by the global warming, experiencing

droughts, heat waves and crop failures. These effects of increasing temperature are expected

to worsen dramatically in case of 2o scenario. (Shepard 2019)

3.1. Definition of Resources

To start a conversation about distribution of resources, it is necessary to define resources. The

definition of resources is not limited by only material resources, and as G. Tyler Miller Jr.

(2004) formulated it, resource is anything obtained from the living and nonliving

environment to meet human needs and wants, and it also can be applied to other species. In

the context of this report, the broader definition of resources will be used, it includes

following: (Tyler Miller Jr. 2004)

Table 1. Definitions of resources (Tyler Miller Jr. 2004)

The earth’s natural materials and processes that sustain other
Natural resources
species and humans
Natural resources, capital goods, and labor used in the economy
Economic resources
to produce material goods and services
Cash, investments, and monetary institutions used to support the
Financial resources use of natural and human resources to provide economic goods
and services
Manufactured items made from natural resources and used to
Manufactured resources produce and distribute economic goods and services bought by
consumers
 Physical and mental talents that provide labor, organizational
Human resources
and managemental skills, and innovation

3.2. Distribution of Resources

The film “Styx” has with such a straightforward, quite a simple plot pinpointed a number of

crises that are the reality we live in, in post-industrial world of consumer economy. In this

storyline, we see white-privilege, which includes inequality over financial, social and

economic resources, of German yachtswoman’s over that of people in the boat. She is white,

financially stable, secure, healthy, has a job, lives in a highly secure and developed country,

has agency, her life is valued by the authorities. She has everything that people in the sinking

boat do not have. It is quite an accurate metaphor, or representation, of inequality between

highly developed West and regions such as Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and India.

3.3. Overview of Colonization Period and Post-Colonial Era in Africa

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines colonialism as “control by one power over a dependent

area or people”. The whole idea of colonialism was extending the territories, spreading the

imperial dominant culture and, of course, a way of obtaining and exploiting the abundant and

cheap resources of colonized territories. It includes all kinds of resources, mainly natural and

human resources – such as history of transatlantic slave-trade with a high in the late 18th

century (Klein 2010).

History of colonization of African continent left its legacy that has been lasting long after the

decolonization period, with the last country gaining official independency only in 1993 (RFI

2010) and has been affecting and is still affecting the state of economy, environment and

societies in all African countries.

 3.3.1. European Colonization of Africa

After the slave-trade was legally banned, Atlantic slave export was replaced by commodity

export, or so-called “commercial transition” (Frankema 2015). Active colonization of Africa

by imperial forces of Britain, France and Portugal started with “Scramble for Africa” or

“partition of Africa” between 1881 and 1914. The economic reasons at the time were based

on the fact that sub-Saharan Africa remained one of the few regions in the world still not

colonized and that most European countries economies were crumbling. Industrial revolution

allowed effective mass production, but it was too expensive to source it locally, and Africa

became a source of readily available cheap labour and raw materials. (Shisia 2018)

Figure 1 shows net barter terms of trade for sub-Saharan Africa from 1784 to 1939, with a

peak in 1884-5, when the Berlin conference, organized by Otto von Bismark to set the rules

of effective control of a foreign territory, took place (Frankema 2015, SAHO 2019)

Figure 3. Terms of trade for sub-Saharan Africa, 1784-1939 (Frankema 2015)

 3.3.2. “Resource Curse”, Food and Security Crises and Effects of Climate Change

Although in some ways unique, but picturesque example of underdevelopment and

development dictated by its geographical disposition and history of colonization, the history

of Sahelian West Africa can be described here as a case common for Africa as a whole

continent.

Sahel, the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone that lies between the Sahara to the north and

the Sudanian Savanna to the south. West African Sahel includes Senegal, Gambia,

Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, northern Nigeria and Cameroon, countries with

largely similar history of colonization and environmental characteristics. These countries

historically are exporters of commodity, such as cotton (Burkina Faso and Mali), oil (Chad)

and uranium byproducts (Niger), due to their colonial and post-colonial legacy. Moseley

(2008) argues that these exports were prioritized, so other dimension of the national

economies have suffered – the problem that is referred as “resource curse” or “Dutch

Desease”.

Dependency theory suggests that reconfiguration of economy of underdeveloped states to

produce commodities, which were exported and enriched the wealthy states, have led to their

underdevelopment (Frank 1979). As a result of colonial period and post-colonial era

dependency on exporting cash crops, the region has suffered from many ecological disasters,

including famine in Nigeria, soil degradation related to export oriented peanut production,

undermining of food production (Watts 1983, Franke and Chasin 1980, Moseley 2008)

According to the article published in UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

Affairs (UOCHA 2014), by the year 2013, there were 11 million people classified as ‘food

insecure’, from which 2.5 million people needed urgent humanitarian assistance in order to

survive.
Another UN’s party, Food and Agriculture Organization, reports that by June-August 2020

15,5 million people will be severely food insecure, despite satisfactory agricultural

production (see figure 2). The main driver of food insecurity and malnutrition is ongoing civil

insecurity, which “adversely affects households’ agriculture-based livelihoods, with the

disruption of markets and basic social services”. (FAO 2019)

Figure 4. Projected food insecurity and malnutrition situation (June-August 2020) (FAO 2019)

In the report “Shoring Up Stability: Addressing Climate and Fragility Risks in The Lake

Chad Region” (Vivekananda at al. 2019) published by Adelphi, the authors state that climate

change and conflict dynamics add up to each other’s consequences and “create a feedback

loop where climate change impacts seed additional pressures while conflict undermines

communities’ abilities to cope”. Since 2009, due to consequences of temperature rise in the

region, the northern pool of the Lake Chad has been unpredictably changing with the
increasing variability in the timing and amount of rainfall. This, along with the rising

instability, has been making lives of communities in this area - the parts of Nigeria, Niger,

Chad and Cameroon bordering Lake Chad, which have population of more than 17.4 million

people – unpredictable, with two being in a loop and only worsening. The authors of the

report state that the current crisis has deeper roots, and is caused by “recurring economic

crises, divisive reforms and weak governance in the region, coupled with rising inequality

and dismay at corruption among the ruling elite”, which consequently led to “intensifying

religious fundamentalism and the rise of armed opposition groups”. (Vivekananda at al.

2019)

The Sahel region has been a frontline in the war against Islamist militancy since 2012, a

conflict between separatist and Islamist militants and French military forces, with a peace

treaty signed in 2015 but never completely implemented and new armed groups having since

emerged and expanded to central Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Casualties from attacks in

those countries are believed to have increased fivefold since 2016, with over 4,000 deaths

reported last year alone (figure 3). (BBC News 2020)

Figure 5. Casualties from 2015 to 2019 (BBC News 2020)

Boko Haram is a Nigeria-based Sunni extremist terrorist group responsible for numerous

attacks in Sahel region (Bureau of Counterterrorism 2013). According to OECD report “An

Atlas of the Sahara-Sahel Geography, Economics and Security” (2014), criminal networks –

terrorism and the trafficking of arms, drugs and human beings – are taking advantage of the

established intersections of flows of goods and people. This trafficking effects politics,

territories and societies, and connects the Sahara-Sahel to the world economy. The map on

figure 4 reflects the dynamics of armed conflicts caused by Boko Haram and the affected

territories (OECD 2014)

Figure 6. The areas affected by activities of the terrorist sect Boko Haram (OECD, 2014)
From Raphael Obonyo’s “African youth and the growth of violent” article, published in

Africa Renewal: “In their 2017 study based on interviews with hundreds of voluntary recruits

to Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, the United Nations Development Programme found that the

journey to violent extremism is one marked by exclusion and marginalisation, lack of

opportunities, and grievances with the state. About 71% of those interviewed cited

government action — the murder or arrest of a family member or friend — as the tipping

point for joining a violent extremist group, indicating the limits of militarized counter-

terrorism responses by governments.” (UN.ORG 2020)

Local young voices approve the results of this survey and that: “The tendency toward

violent extremism does not emerge in a vacuum. Socio-economic and political

marginalization, and disaffection of youth on the African continent and around the

world are catalysts for joining violent extremism.”, as stated by African Union’s

Youth Envoy, Ms. Aya Chebbi. (UN.ORG 2020)

Figure 7. Liberian women marching through the streets of Monrovia agitating for peace. AFP via
Getty Images/Pius U. Ekpei (UN Photo, 2019)
 4. DISCUSSION

With development of sustainability science and generally – better understanding of how

economy, people and environment interact with each other, it is becoming more obvious that

if the economy, institutions and grand political scene have not been changing for centuries

and there are obvious, painful challenges that a lot of people, species, ecosystems face, there

is something wrong with those processes. In system transition theory those grand challenges

are called system bottlenecks, which are the major constrain to sustainable system transition.

Today, in a globalized world, we can see how our actions can have consequences on the other

side of the planet, and essentially, the world, which was seen by European colonists as

endless source of enrichment, is in fact very fragile and finite.

In today world, regions such as African Sahel, carry the burden and the legacy of such

exploitive approach and are sore spots on the surface of our planet, which show everything

that is wrong with the grand systems operating in the world.

. In January 2019, at the World Economic Forum, climate researchers presented their forecast

for the Sahel: In a region where the average temperature is 35 degrees, climate scientists fear

that it will increase by at least 3 degrees by 2050 (UN.ORG 2017).

The experts predict dramatic effect of climate change on food production in the world’s

poorest area: up to 50 million people throughout Sahel are nomads and dependent on their

cattle flocks. There is less access to grass than ever, which is triggering violent conflicts

between resident farmers and nomads in countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Chad and other

states in the region. Such conflicts were often solved locally through negotiations, and now,

the situation is so desperate that it frequently triggers violence that kills thousands of people

every year. (Norwegian Refugee Council 2020)

In Sahel, plagued by poverty, food shortages, lack of job opportunities and climate change,

young people think about daily survival, not about their plans for future. In their report

“Shoring Up Stability: Addressing Climate and Fragility Risks in The Lake Chad Region”

published by Adelphi, Vivekananda at al. (2019) state that the current crisis has deeper roots,

and is caused by “recurring economic crises, divisive reforms and weak governance in the

region, coupled with rising inequality and dismay at corruption among the ruling elite”,

which consequently led to “intensifying religious fundamentalism and the rise of armed

opposition groups”.

As of March 2019, 4.2 million people have been displaced from their homes in the countries

of the Sahel region, which is one million more than at the same time last year. Violence has

escalated in the past year – especially in parts of Mali, the areas around Lake Chad, Burkina

Faso and parts of Niger. (Norwegian Refugee Council 2020)

It can be said that this kind of a tough case needs system approach, where one tool cannot

deal with all the problems – the solution should be non-violent and made by common effort

of every party responsible. The drastic improvement of education and health services is

needed in the region, as well as fighting widespread corruption, so the policy tools become

effective.

It is noted by Frankema (2015) that currently, commodity exporting pattern for Africa has not

been entirely broken. With China investing in land and subtly aspiring to formal political

control in the region, yet another rapid industrialization is taking place. Increasing oil exports

have boomed in the continent, leading to environmental consequences. It is important for

policymakers to lead their countries towards sustainable development, so the renewed cycle

of commodity dependency is to be avoided. (Frankema 2015)

 5. CONCLUSIONS

In this report, the attempt was made to investigate how unequal distribution of resources,

ignited by European colonialist period, have affected one of the world’s poorest and most

insecure places – the West African Sahel region.

The legacy of colonial period made countries in this region dependent on cash crops, which

distracted the government from stabilizing other sectors of economy. Widespread rural

underdevelopment led to poverty, poverty, food shortages, lack of job opportunities.

The relation between historical carbon footprint of the region was analyzed in comparison

with the effects of climate change taking place in Sahel and how it affects the lives of the

poorest countries in the world, leading to ecological catastrophes, civil instabilities, food

crisis and human rights violations. Millions of people have been and still are displaced from

their homes due to various armed conflicts and hunger.

These problems are combination of grand challenges of sustainability, they affect each other

and are in a feedback loop, as a result, worsening the situation. Thus, it is crucial to discover

their deeper roots and deal with the challenges from system prospective.
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