GES 402: REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY OF

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
 What is geography?

• The study of earth’s landscapes, peoples, places and

environments
• It is unique in that it bridges social sciences (cultures,
societies & economies) with natural sciences (physical
landscapes & the environment)
• Geo puts the understanding of physical and social
processes (temporal) within the context of places and
regions (spatial)
• Understand differences and links between various
attributes of the world
 What is Sub-Saharan Africa?

• A geographical term used to

describe the area of African
continent which lies south of the
Sahara desert or those countries
partially or fully located south of
the Sahara desert
• It is largely separated from North
Africa by the Sahel region
• Covers an area of 24.3mill km2
(30.7mill km2 Africa)
• It has 49 countries (54 Africa)
• Also known as Black Africa
because of its predominantly
black population.
 Task

• Divide SSA into 4 regions

• Focus – what are the opportunities and challenges
presented by the physical environment and human
attributes on SSA’s socio-economic development?
 Climatic zones

• Tropical rainforest/Equatorial climate (0 – 50 N&S)

• Tropical savanna (5 – 150N & 5 – 300S)
• Desert (15 – 250 N & Southwest)
• Mediterranean/ Dry summer subtropical climate (350
S)
Climatic regions in SSA
Climatic zones
 Benefits & Challenges

• Plantation farming – grow cash crops such as tea, cocoa and

palm oil.
• Employs many people
• Nigeria is a leading producer of Palm Oil in the world.
• Cocoa production is clustered in West Africa in countries such
as Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire.
• Kenya is one of the world’s leading producers of tea.
• Timber export
• Water resources
• Subsistence farming – rainfed.
• Note that high temperatures tend to frustrate people from
working hard but also offer favourable conditions for plants to
thrive throughout the year
Vegetation
 Vegetation in SSA

Grassland savannah
Bushland savannah

Mediterranean
Desert

Tropical rainforest
Wildlife
 Water resources

• About 3% of global water is freshwater

• Africa has 9% of global freshwater resources
• However, water resources in SSA are not evenly distributed
and have been dwindling due to a number of factors including
climate change
• E.g. The surface area of Lake Chad has shrunk from 25 000
square kilometres in the 1960s to 4 800 square kilometres in
2014
• Increasing number of water deficit economies
• 319 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are without access to
improved reliable drinking water sources (783 million people
worldwide).
Major sources of water resources
Wetlands
 Benefits from water resources

• Why would people want to live by the water?

– Agriculture
– Tourism
– Hydro-electric power generation
– Fishing
– Industrial activities
 Soils

• Generally soils in SSA are said to be poor and

degraded (See map of degradation)
• However, some scholars say they are poorly
surveyed & this explains why FAO is
committing resources towards that initiative
to ensure sustainable planning.
Soil degradation
Soil Map of SSA
 Characteristics of major soil types in SSA
• Ultisols – red clay soils normally found in humid areas and are intensely
weathered.
• Oxisols – occur in tropical rainforests (15 – 25 N&S) & are largely depleted
in minerals that promote fertility, e.g., Congo basins
• Alfisols – form in semi-arid to humid areas and have a clay-enriched
subsoil & relatively high fertility. Normally covered with natural broad-
leaved deciduous forest vegetation before cultivation. Are arable soils with
water content adequate for at least 3 consecutive months for growing
season.
• Entisols – are soils of recent origin & show little profile development.
Normally found in unstable environments, e.g., floodplains, steep slopes
etc
• Vertisols – soils with high content of shrinking or swelling clay minerals &
are dark coloured with variable organic content. Typically form in
limestone or basalt or topographic depressions.
• Aridisols – commonly found in deserts & have low organic content. This
soil has water deficiency; hence plants can’t be grown without irrigation.
 General soil distribution

• Areas of poor soils – Around Equator (Congo basin –

latosols/oxisols), Sahel region & deserts (Aridsols),
Southern Africa – most soils derived from granite rock
and are inherently infertile.
• Areas of fertile soils – volcanic soils (Mt Cameron & Mt
Kilimanjaro, Ethiopian Highlands), Floodplains, Great
East African Rift Valley (mainly Alfisols & Ultisols), West
Africa (Alfisols), Vertisols (Southern Africa – Zim & SA
and East Africa – South Sudan, Ethiopia & Uganda),
Ultisols – Central to E. Africa and parts of W.Africa)
• Explain how different type of soils affect dvpt in SSA?
 Topography

• Lowland areas are infested with disease carrying pests –

tsetse flies, mosquitoes
• Some rivers are infested with bilharzia carrying snails
• Lowland valleys in West Africa – flies that cause river
blindness
• Malaria slows economic growth by 1.3% p.a through time
lost due to illness & the costs of treatment and prevention
measures
• Nagana results in loss of livestock which is a key pillar of
subsistence families’ wealth.
• Mountains have cultural significance
• Rapids in major rivers inhibit water transport for landlocked
countries
 General effects of physical constraints

• Many people spend much of their time fighting diseases

and simply trying to survive – inadequate shelter &
clothing, poor sanitation, inadequate food etc.
• This also explains why mortality is high in SSA compared to
other parts of the world.
• Women and children are more affected than men
• Added to the physical constraints are human induced
constraints which became more pronounced in the last 3
decades
– Rapid soil erosion
– Danger of desertification
– Deforestation
– Environmental degradation: Climate change
 Minerals
• Geology of SSA is not well documented or clearly marked out.
• However, knowledge has been improving over the last 2
decades.
• The continent is known to have substantial mineral resources,
some of which are well valued.
• SSA is the world’s largest producer of diamonds
• Finest stones are found in Namibia, Angola, Sierra Leone
• SA has been the leading global gold producer in since 1912.
• Zim and SA are potentially well feared by virtue of having a
wide range of minerals.
• Zim and SA hold 90% of global chromite reserves
• SA has 90% of the known platinum on earth
• West Africa has large deposits of bauxite
 Minerals

• Guinea Bissau has highest quality of bauxite and is the 2nd

largest producer worldwide
• DRC has 64% of the world’s coltan and has largest reserve of
cobalt in the world
• Uranium – SA, Angola, Gabon, Liberia CAR, DRC
• Gabon is the world’s third largest producer of mangenese
Minerals distribution
Minerals and conflicts
 Fossil fuels

• Oil exporting countries - export oil Nigeria, Gabon, and Angola.

 Importance of minerals
• Source of revenue through taxation – Botswana (55%), Sierra
Leone (57%) & Guinea Bissau (82%)
• Source of export currency – Zambia (93%)
• Employment creation – 3 biggest platinum producers in SA
(Anglo America, Lonmin & Implats) employ 135 000, Zim in
2002 – 60 000
• Raw material for manufacturing industry
• Infrastructural development
• Domestic activities meant to serve the mines – supply and
repair of machines, banks etc
• Therefore, minerals needs to be exploited efficiently to the
best advantage of SSA countries??
• However, some countries with lots of minerals have been
experiencing negative economic growth and are far no better
than some which largely depend on agriculture, e.g. DRC
Challenges undermining optimum benefits from
minerals
• Diversion of revenue into private pockets or non-development
projects
• Unpredictable world prices
• Friction and suspicions between SSA governments and MNCs
with capital and technology (& often control markets)
• Interference by superpowers in order to find an opportunity
to plunder mineral wealth
• Heavy taxation
• Fear of nationalization by investors
External interference
What should be done to optimize benefits from
mining?
• Indigenization?
• Nationalization?
• Promote FDI?
• Promote minerals beneficiation?
Geopolitical environment
 Geopolitical environment
• What is geopolitics?
• The study of the effects of geography on international
relations and politics (influence of geography on politics).
• It is a branch of geography that promises to explain the
relationship between geographical realities and international
affairs
• The term geopolitics reflects the connection between power
and interests, strategic decision making and geographic space.
• In other words, geopolitics is about the competition over the
control of territory and the extraction of resources
 Why studying geopolitics?

• The underdevelopment of SSA has been blamed on the

climate, diseases, ignorance on part of the people and even
laziness.
• These days perceptions have been changing because the
continent is now part of the global socio-economic system.
• Therefore, prospects of development in SSA can be
understood in the context of geopolitics of the world.
• Policy options in SSA are influenced by geopolitics – weak
position in international trade, reliance on expatriate skills
etc.
Civil disruptions in SSA
 Civil disruptions
• Post-independence SSA has been experiencing numerous civil
disruptions both within and between countries. Why?
• The first two months of 2015 saw about 8 300 people die as a
result of conflict in sub-Saharan Africa, with just five countries
– Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, Somalia and Niger – accounting
for roughly 90% of these deaths.
Civil disruptions
 Why high incidences of civil disruptions
• Historical factors
– Can be traced back to the partitioning of Africa by European powers who
had limited knowledge of the continent.
– Tribal groups with parallel religious and cultural backgrounds were spilt
between two or more countries (Nigeria, Somalis).
• Political domination (DRC, Gambia, Burundi etc)
• Boundary disputes (Bakassi Peninsula on the African Gulf of Guinea,
Lake Chad), Lake Malawi – Malawi & Tanzania, Ethiopia & Eretria
(1998 -2000)
• Religion
• Ethnicity
• Ideological differences
• External interference
• Lack of nationhood spirit
• Conflict normally result in refugees and ultimately poverty
Border Conflict
 Landlockedness
• It is the lack of territorial access to the sea.
• Lack of access is typically seen as a major impediment to
trade.
• It affects both economic and non-economic dimensions of
development.
• 9 of 12 countries with the lowest Human Development Index
(HDI) scores are landlocked countries and are all found in SSA.
• HDI is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s
achievement in its social and economic dimensions.
• The social and economic dimensions of a country are based
on health of people, their level of education attainment
(mean years of schooling & expected years of schooling) and
their standard of living (GNI per capita).
 Landlockedness
• The average LLDCs achieves level of development on average
20% lower than the average coastal developing country.
• High number of landlocked countries also explains why SSA is
the least developed region of the world.
• Of the 32 LLDCs in the world, 16 are in SSA.
• In SSA, landlockedness is a result of the partitioning of Africa.
Per capita GDP
Challenges of landlockedness
 Challenges of landlockedness
• Generally interior locations are less attractive to foreign
investors who prefer coastal locations.
• Landlocked countries often supply labour to coastal countries.
 What is being done to address to address
development challenges of LLDCs?
• Responding to the specific problems of LLDCs requires a
multidimensional approach.
• Following the creation of the UN Office of the High
Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked
Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) in
2001, a ministerial intergovernmental conference held in
Almaty in 2003 agreed to the Almaty Programme of Action
(APoA) as a means to pursue the commitment to address the
special needs of LLDCs.
• The APoA is a broad call for joint efforts by international
community, the LLDCs & the transit developing countries to
revise regulatory frameworks affecting trade & to improve
trade related infrastructures for the benefit of LLDCs.
• The Almaty agreement culminated into UN Conference on
LLDCs
 Some suggested recommendations to problems of
LLDCS
• Instead of increasing physical quantity of goods/services,
increase the value of what is being traded.
• Funding of infrastructure in transit outlets and landlocked
countries – donors, PPP etc
• Enhance regional integration
• Transit countries and LLDCs should establish transit
agreements that discipline the conditions of use of transit
facilities.
• Transit countries should undertake a set of reforms,
particularly in relation to the efficiency and cost of their
custom procedures.
• To reduce costs and delays, transit countries and LLDCs should
agree to share harmonized paperwork and procedures and to
make use of information technology to exchange shipping
documentation.
Population issues in SSA
 Population growth and associated problems
• SSA has been experiencing phenomenal population growth
since the turn of the 20th century.
• The region’s population increased from 100 million people in
1900 to 900 million in 2016, expected to reach 2.7 billion by
2060.
• Population in SSA is growing at 2.73% per annum (World Bank
2015) (Zimbabwe – 1.1% Zimstat (2012))
• Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, DRC, Niger, Zambia, and Uganda
will contribute millions of people to the world total.
• By 2050, Nigeria is projected to outpace the population of the
United States by about 30 million people.
• Two thirds of the region’s population is under the age of 25
years, meaning most people are of childbearing age or
younger.
 Population growth and associated problems
• In most SSA, over 40% of the population is under the age of
15 years
• Population below the age of 15 years grew by 150% between
1970 & 2005 (Niger – 200%)
• Population growth is driven by high total fertility rate (TFR),
average of 5.2 children per woman (Guinea – 7, Zimbabwe –
3.8, Global – 2.5)
• Rapid population growth rather than population size per se
poses one of the greatest challenges to development in SSA.
 Population growth and associated problems

• It tends to press on the management of the resource base and

act as a drag to economic development which must achieve a
GDP growth above 7% p.a in order to produce per capita gain.
• High dependency ratio implies that there is urgent need to
find resources to feed, train, educate, employ, house, provide
medical services and other services to those under the age of
15 years.
• The prime effect of rapid population growth is handicapped
social and economic development.
 Causes of rapid population growth or high fertility

• Religious factors
• Low status of women
• Lack of security at old age
• Influence of extended family
• High mortality rates
• Preference for a male child
• Limited access to contraceptives
• Early marriages
• Economic factors (Caldwell’s theory of wealth flow)
 Population distribution and density
• SSA has less than 10% of the global population on less than
20% of the world area.
• SSA population shows wide variations in terms of distribution,
with an average population density of 36.17 people/km2 (WB
2012)
• The region has pockets of very dense population surrounded
by areas with few people.
• In Zimbabwe, the population density is 33 people/km2
(Zimstat 2012)
• High population densities are found in Urban provinces –
Harare (2 406) & Bulawayo (1 369)
• Highest population density in rural provinces of Zimbabwe is
found in Manicaland (48), Matabeleland with the least (10).
Patterns of population distribution in SSA
 Factors influencing population distribution and
density
• Historical factors
– Slavery
– Tribal warfare
– Availability of pastures & water supplies
• Demographic factors
– High population growth rate
– Diseases
– Poor nutrition
• Physical and ecological factors
– Rainfall/water
– Soils
– Topography
 Factors influencing population distribution and
density
• Colonization and impacts
– Island development
– Zimbabwe – large scale commercial areas (7.6) &
communal areas (25.5)
• Socio-political factors
– Ethnicity
– Religion
– War
 International migration
• In the late 1980s, international migrants of all types
worldwide were estimated to be in the range of 80 million,
approx 35 million were in SSA.
• Only 5.4 million were officially recognized migrants.
• This makes it difficult for both sending and receiving countries
to plan for the national populations due to unofficial increases
or declines in numbers.
• Demographic analysis is complicated especially where
population movements are frequent and volatile.
• It is imperative to look at international migration in SSA in
light of their scale, directions, links to economic factors and
their effect on size, structure and composition of the region.
 Reasons for international migration
• Employment
• Joining or accompanying family members
• Refuge from drought, famines, political upheavals, civil wars
or military conflicts.
• Pilgrims
• Education and training
• Diplomatic business
 Refugee problem in SSA
• What is the different between a refugee and migrant?
• UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) – a person
owing to well founded fear of being prosecuted for reasons of race,
religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or
political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable
or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of
that country.
• 1969 OAU Refugee Convention – the term applies to every person
who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or
even events seriously disturbing public order is compelled to leave to
seek refuge in another place.
• These conventions remain the cornerstone of modern refugee
protection.
• The number of refugees in SSA at any given time is not known but
estimates say it runs into several millions.
• SSA hosts more than 26 per cent of the world’s refugee population
(65.5 million) (UNHCR 2017).
 Refugee problem in SSA
• These large scale movements compounds uneven population
distribution and complicates planning for socio-economic
development.
• Almost half of SSA countries are responsible for the problem
of refugees.
• Reasons – civil wars, political persecutions, religion, envtl
 HIV/AIDS in SSA
• About 24.7 million people are living with HIV in SSA (UNAIDS
2014).
• Two thirds of the global HIV infected population is in SSA.
• Three quarters of AIDS deaths occurred in SSA.
• Out of the total number of people living with HIV worldwide,
34% reside in 10 SADC countries.
• However, HIV prevalence varies from country to country in
scale and scope.
• SA with an estimated 6.4 million HIV people makes it the
largest in the world.
• 26% HIV prevalence found in adults in Swaziland in 2006 is the
highest figure everdocumented in a national population based
survey worldwide.
• DHS results in S. African countries shows that two thirds of
the HIV infected couples were (sero)discordant
 Factors that contribute to the spread of HIV
• Extreme poverty and income inequalities
• High mobility and migrant labour
• Gender dynamics and gender based violence
• Illiteracy
• Stigma and discrimination
• Alcohol abuse
• Emergency situations – civil conflict, war, displacement
• Multiple sexual partners
• Low rates of male circumcision
 Implications of high HIV prevalence rates
• Decline in productive labour force
• Increased costs of production due to absenteeism
• Increased cost of public and private goods & services
• Greater demand for cemetery space
• Increased number of child-headed families
• Increased demand for health services
• Increased demand for welfare services & social grants
• Increased burden on women and girl children
Some strategies to reduce or eliminate new infections
• Condom promotion and distribution
• Behaviour change communication
• HIV testing and counselling
• Safe medical circumcision
• Mainstreaming HIV&AIDS across all sectors
• Prevention of mother to child transmission
 Urban growth and urbanisation
• Most of population growth in SSA is expected to be absorbed
in urban areas.
• While the urbanization process has stabilized in most
developed countries with about 75% of the population living
in urban areas, most SSA countries are transitioning from
being predominantly rural to urban.
• About 37.34% of the population in SSA is found in urban areas
(Global average – 52%) (World Bank 2012)
• However, SSA remains with the highest urbanization rate
worldwide.
• The main force behind urbanization is rural – urban migration.
• The process of urbanization is associated with the strategic or
key role that urban centres play in the development process.
 Rate of urban growth
• Accompanying the process of urbanization is the rate of urban
growth in SSA.
• In SSA, urban growth peaked in the 1970s and 1980s in
response to;
– More liberal policies pursued by independent African
states which allowed for greater population movements.
– Economic growth rates which were relatively higher than
population growth rates.
• The scale of urban growth however overwhelms the capacity
of governments to provide basic social services; hence a
myriad of problems in urban areas.
 Factors behind rapid urbanization
• Mechanisation and loss of employment
• Discrimination on political, religious or ethnic grounds
• Decline in the natural resource base
• Lack of marriage and employment in the local community.
• Retreat due to natural catastrophes – drought, floods etc
• Breaking social norms
• Superior opportunities for employment
• Opportunity to earn larger income
• Opportunity to obtain higher education or specialized training
• Better living conditions, e.g., provision of sanitary facilities
• Accompanying couple or family
 Problems of urban growth
• Unbalanced population, spatial and economic development
• Large scale deprivation (poverty)
• Inadequate basic social services – education, health, housing,
electricity, potable water, waste disposal, transport etc
• Shortage of public fiscal resources
• Shortage of qualified human resources for effective planning
and management
• Costly imported finance
• Inappropriate planning ideas and technology
• Absence of meaningful public participation in the planning
and development process
• Uncoordinated national and municipal urban policies
• Deteriorating environments
 What should be done to address problems of
urbanization?
• Growth pole or growth centre strategy?
• Resettlement of the landless peasants?
• A more integrated approach to development?
 Agriculture and Development

• A large percentage of the population in SSA is engaged in

agriculture.
• Most people are engaged in subsistence farming and have
small farms to grow just enough food to live.
• More than 90% of the labour force in Burkina Faso, Rwanda
and Burundi are engaged in agriculture.
• Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Sudan,
Ethiopia and Chad have between 80 and 90% of their labour
force in agriculture.
 The state of agricultural sector in SSA

• SSA’s average cereal yield between 1991 and 1998 was

stagnant at about 1.2 tonnes per hectare.
• By 2020, even assuming optimistically that national average of
cereal yields increase to 1.8tons/ha, the region will need to
import between 25 and 32 percent of its cereal demand to
remain at present national levels.
• Agriculture in SSA needs to grow by 4% per annum to meet
the food requirements of the growing population.
• Between 1990 and 2003, population in SADC rose from 152
million to 212 million but food production remained stagnant.
 The magnitude of food crisis

• Statistics by World Bank and FAO reflect that the production

and supply of food has been deteriorating over the past
decades.
• Many people are underfed and malnourished.
• Women and children are the most vulnerable.
• In 36 countries of SSA, 1 in every 4 people is directly
threatened by malnutrition.
• This explains why infant mortality rate is still high in SSA.
• The affected number normally increase during bad years, e.g.
drought, floods, locust outbreaks etc.
• The average calorie intake per person is below the WHO
recommended minimum of 2800KCal (Southern Africa –
2160KCal)
 The magnitude of food crisis

• Food aid is mainly associated with emergency situations in

other parts of the world but in SSA its now a norm.
• SSA countries spends a lot of money on food imports.
• In about 40% of the countries, the value of food imports
exceeds total food export earnings.
• This is resulting in diversion of foreign currency from other
sectors of the economy and at the same time straining the
already visible trade imbalances.
 Causes of poor agricultural performance and
food crisis in SSA
• Periodic attacks by pests
• Tropical soils
• Climatic variability
• Climate change
• Drought and unpredictability
• Poor market prices and conditions
• Macroeconomic policies that favour industry and urban
areas
• Inadequate extension services
• Poor transport networks
• Neglecting food crops in favour non-food crops
• Colonial land policies
 Contribution of agricultural sector to socio-
economic development
• Formal employment
• Export earnings
• Domestic food production for urban people
• Raw material for the manufacturing sector
• Market for industrial goods
• Source of tax revenue for governments
 Suggested solutions to food crisis

• Allocation of more resources to rural areas and agriculture.

• Provision of necessary support infrastructure – roads, storage
depots, dams etc.
• Increasing producer prices for smallholder farmers.
• Provision of credit
• Human capital development
• Population control
• Increase access and ownership to land
 Economic growth and development
• Economic growth is measured by the amount of production in
a country or region over a period of time.
• Traditionally, aggregate economic growth is measured in
terms of gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic
product (GDP), although alternative metrics are sometimes
used.
• Increase in the capital stock, advances in technology, and
improvement in the quality and level of literacy are
considered to be the principal causes of economic growth.
• In recent years, the idea of sustainable development has
brought in additional factors such as environmentally sound
processes that must be taken into account in growing an
economy.
 Economic growth and development

• Economic development means an improvement in quality of

life and living standards.
• Economic development is defined as the increase in the
economic wealth of a country or a particular area, for the
welfare of its residents
• Economic development is a broader concept than economic
growth.
• Development reflects social and economic progress and
requires economic growth.
• Growth is a vital and necessary condition for development,
but it is not a sufficient condition as it cannot guarantee
development.
• Is it possible to have economic growth without development?
 Measures of economic development

• Real income per head – GDP per capita

• Levels of literacy and education standards
• Levels of health care e.g. number of doctors per 1000
population
• Quality and availability of housing
• Levels of environmental standards
• Life expectancy
• Human Development Index
• Employment levels
• Level of infrastructural development
 Economic growth and development in SSA

• SSA economic growth is amongst the lowest in the world.

• GDP is growing at a slower pace than population.
• Job creation is not keeping pace with increasing labour force.
• Per capita income is very low by world standards.
• Large proportion of rural subsistence population.
• High proportion of the population in the informal sector.
• Low literacy rates.
• Low life expectancy.
• Low HDI scores.
 Factors affecting economic growth and
development in SSA.
• Low levels of education – determine productivity of workforce
• Corrupt governments
• Lack of modern infrastructure
• Civil wars/ inter-ethnic conflicts
• Colonization
• Large number of landlocked countries
• Environmental problems such as desertification and droughts
• Flow of foreign aid and investment
• Levels of inward investment. For example, China has invested
in many African countries to help export raw materials, that
its economy needs.
 Development aid and development assistance
• Notion dates back to post WW2.
• Aid has expanded and represents a major aspect of political
and economic relationship.
• It was realized in the 1960s that Africa and other third world
countries required financial, human and technical aid if they
were to develop.
• 1960s were declared by UN as the 1st UN development
decade.
• Developed countries in UN pledged to give at least 1% of their
national income as aid although the figure was reduced to
0.7% in the 1970s.
• Between 1961 & 62, SSA received 9% of the total aid, 1962 -
1972 (18%), 1980 -89 (39.9%) (See next slide)
Regional shares of total net ODA
As a percentage of total ODA
 Forms and principal sources of ODA

• Forms – bilateral, multilateral, charitable organizations,

grants, cash, personal.
• Principal sources of both governmental and non-
governmental aid – North America, EU, China, Japan, ADB, IDA
etc
 Is AID effective in SSA?

• Despite 3 decades of development aid, there is no meaningful

development and poverty is still widespread.
• Questions have been raised on why aid is failing to uplift the
standard of living of the people.
• There are two major sides to this debate – donors and
recipients.
 Arguments of recipients
• Recipient countries argue that the so-called aid benefits the
donor countries rather than them.
• High interest on development loans place a severe burden on
export earnings and foreign currency reserves, e.g., Zimbabwe
more than $9billion debt.
• This explains why some countries have been defaulting,
asking for debt rescheduling or declaring themselves HIPCs.
• In order to honour these debts, SSA countries overexploit
their resources such as mineral wealth at very low prices yet
these are finite.
• Tied aid – social, political and economic conditions.
• Questions about tied aid – should it be used to interfere with
local political or economic policies?, Is this not a form of neo-
colonialism?
 Arguments of donor countries

• Corruption among SSA governments.

• Lack of skilled and experienced personnel to implement the
development projects.
• Failure to run development projects after the departure of
experts.
• Bureaucracy delaying implementation of development
projects.
 Possible solutions to effect of ODA

• Giving better return to developing countries products –

mining, agriculture etc?
• Value addition?
• Regional integration?
• Home grown solutions?
• Address internal shortcomings of recipient countries?
• Revisit interest rates?
 Economic co-operation and integration
• Topical issue not only in SSA but worldwide
• Economic co-operation and integration started in the 1960s, when
African leaders wanted both political and economic unity, e.g.,
formation of OAU
• The Lagos Plan of Action in 1980 provided the framework for
further integration
• African leaders agreed to set up 3 preferential regional areas by the
end of 1984
• Envisaged the formation of a common market by 2000
• The common market was expected to develop into an African
economic community which would be the continental vehicle for
self-reliance, dvpt & industrialization
• On the economic side, there has been numerous attempts to
integrate – SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, West African Economic &
Monetary Union, ECCAS, Economic & Monetary Community of
Central African States, COMESA etc
 Economic co-operation and integration
• Economic (regional) integration is an agreement among countries in a
geographic region to reduce and ultimately remove, tariff and non tariff
barriers to the free flow of goods or services and factors of production
among each others.
• Basically, it refers to the gradual joining together of two or more
economies to form a single economy
• The primary objective of integration is to promote trade between member
states in order to raise the standard of living of their people.
• Economic cooperation is the cooperation between countries in the
economic field, bilateral, regional and international levels.
• Economic cooperation between countries covers several fields, such as
exports and imports of goods (goods and services), lending and borrowing
of capital and payments, etc
• Based on the number of countries, economic cooperation can be divided
into two;
– Bilateral cooperation - between the two countries
– Multilateral cooperation - between many countries or cooperation by
a country with some other countries
Stages in economic co-operation and integration
• Preferential Trade Area (PTA) - exist when countries within a geographical
region agree to reduce or eliminate tariff barriers on selected goods imported
from other members of the area.
• Free Trade Areas (FTAs) - agree to reduce or eliminate barriers to trade on all
goods coming from other members.
• Customs Union – removal of trade barriers & erection of a common tariff wall
against non-members
• Common Market - removal of trade barriers, erection of a common tariff wall
against non-members & free movement of factors of production between
members
• Economic Union - removal of trade barriers, erection of a common tariff wall
against non-members, free movement of factors of production between
members & coordination of economic policies
• Complete Economic Integration - removal of trade barriers, erection of a
common tariff wall against non-members, free movement of factors of
production between members, coordination of economic policies,
coordination of social policies and establishment of an infrastructural
authority with binding decisions
Stages in economic co-operation and integration
 Benefits of integration

• Removal of trade barriers facilitate increasing trade between

member states for mutual benefits
• Enlargement of markets, e.g., for countries with small
population sizes, small size, subsistence population, low
incomes etc
• Increased resource base for countries with small sizes –
pooling together of resources
• Allocation of duties between member states; hence
duplication of projects is avoided
 Obstacles to economic integration in SSA
• Dominance of one trading partner at the expense of weaker partners, e.g.,
Nigeria – ECOWAS, SA – SADC
• Lack of political will as most countries are inward looking, i.e., concerned
about national power and sovereignty than what is good for the region
• Development plans and projects are nationally defined & oriented yet
they should be internationally defined
• Differences in economic and political ideologies, e.g., socialist, capitalist
etc
• Competing economies based on export of agricultural and mining
resources
• Need to protect weaker sections of the economy
• Poorly developed transport networks
• Multiplicity of membership, e.g., Tanzania – EAC & SADC, Angola – ECCAS
& SADC, Zimbabwe, Mozambique & Zambia –SADC & COMESA
• Language barriers