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NB – South Africa is not included in this unit

Study Theme 3E:

The Politics of Development

in Africa

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By the end of this unit students should be able to:

Describe the problems in Health care, education and water suppliesDescribe and evaluated the economic, social and political problems facing African Countries Describe & evaluate the role of UN & its agencies Describe & evaluate the role of NGOs Describe & evaluate the role of the UK Govt – Dept for International Development (DFID)Be aware of the role of the AU, EU & G8

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The ExamThe Exam You can’t refer to South Africa

You must know the difference between an NGO & a UN agency. E.g. Oxfam & UNICEF

You must be able to refer to specific countries, their problems & attempted solutions.

You must do 1 question form International Issues (Study Theme 3-ST3) in the Exam

You can do your fourth question form International Issues(ST3) or from UK Politics(ST1)

In ST3 you will also be taught the USA option

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GlossaryGlossaryDeveloped Country a “rich” country like the USA or UK

Developing Country a “poor” country like Sudan

NGO a non-governmental organisation like

Oxfam or Save the Children Fund

Bilateral Aid aid given by one country to another

Multi-lateral Aid aid given by an organisation like the

UN or EU (more than one country)

Learn also the terms on P14 of the LTS Booklet

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Characteristics of Developed/Developing Countries

Developed Countries High levels of literacy High GNP per capita

(UK) High life expectancy Low population

growth rate ( UK 0.3%)

Developing Countries

Low literacy levels Low GNP Low life expectancy High Population

growth

Try to add to these lists as you go through the Study Theme.

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Remember Africa is a

Continent of over 50

countries.

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What are the main problems for

development in Africa?

Climatic Change

Civil WarPopulation Growth

Land Tenure

Debt

Government Policy

Health care/

Disease

Poverty

Over-farming

Unfair Trade &

Cash Crops

Education

Water supplies

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Disease : AidsHIV/Aids is major problem across this region.

In every one of the affected countries, the population has already been weakened by the virus.

In Zambia, 1 in 5 adults is HIV positive.

This affects the population as it reduces the number of able-bodied workers.

In many countries the older generation is left to care for the young.

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2005 Sub-Saharan Africa AIDS Report

People with HIV: 25.8m

% of world's HIV cases: 64%

New cases: 3.2m

Aids deaths: 2.4m

•Only 1/20 HIV children in developing countries receives the treatment they need. (Oxfam Report)

•Most of HIV-positive children die before they are 5.

•60%+ of all people with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

•Despite falls in adult HIV prevalence apparently under way in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, there is little evidence of declining epidemics in this region as a whole.

More Info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/health/2005/aids_crisis/default.stm

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AIDS is not just a direct killer but a major contributor to famine, according to aid agencies. Some countries are

expected to lose a quarter of their agricultural workforce to AIDS by 2020. Early deaths deprive new generations of

knowledge about farming methods, while food consumption in families hit by HIV/Aids drops by up to

40%

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Malaria

•It is preventable & curable, but can be fatal if not treated.

•It kills 1 million+ people a year - mostly young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

•Africa accounts for over 90% of reported cases of malaria.

• 10% of African hospital admissions are for malaria, as are 20-30% of doctors' visits.

•Africa’s malaria-related illness & death rates are increasing.

•Bill Gates donated $50 million to research a possible vaccine against malaria.

Malaria, an ancient disease, threaten 40% of the world's population. Official studies suggest rates of between 350 - 500 million a year.

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2005 World Report on Malaria by UNICEF & WHOhttp://www.who.int/malaria/includes_en/whomalariapublications19982004.htm

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•Uses 40% of public health expenditure, 30-50% of inpatient admissions in areas with high malaria transmission.

•Sub-Saharan Africa is prone to Plasmodium falciparum, the most severe & life-threatening form of the disease.

•Sub-saharan Africa is home to the worst (most effective) species of mosquitoes for transmitting the disease.

•Many African countries lacked the infrastructures & resources necessary to mount sustainable campaigns against malaria.

Malaria in Africa – The Facts:

•Costs Africa an Est. US$12 billion yearly in lost GDP, it could be controlled for less $s than this.

•Cause of 20% of under 5s deaths

•10% of overall disease burden.

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Malaria results in lost life and lost productivity. Malaria also hampers children's schooling and development through both absenteeism and the permanent damage associated with Malaria.

The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) global partnership was formed in 1998. In 2000 African leaders met to translate RBM's goal of halving malaria rates by 2010 into real action. The Abuja Declaration, April 2000 set interim targets and significant progress has been made since the agreement:

•Clear targets for the % of people with access to treatment, protective measures

•20 African countries have reduced or stopped tax on insecticide nets •Prevention & management of malaria in pregnancy programmes

•Improving the prevention of, and response to, malaria epidemics

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UN World Water Development Report

Almost 20% of the world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water because of failed policies, lack of resources and environmental

changes.

•The report warned, regions such as sub-Saharan Africa would be likely to meet the UN MDG of halving people

without access to safe drinking water by 2015.

•One billion people are without access to clean drinking water.

•The authors said failure to provide adequate supplies and sanitation was directly linked to poor health and low quality of life among the urban poor, which could act as a

trigger for social unrest and conflicts.

•Poor water quality is a key cause of poverty. Around 3.1m people died in 2002 as a result of diarrhoeal

diseases and malaria, 90% of whom were children. http://www.unesco.org/water/img/header_delta_3.jpg

               

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EducationEverywhere, education is a key to change and self-improvement. At the present rate, Africa will miss key targets for reducing poverty by more than 100 years. Universal primary education for all would not be provided until 2130.

According to the Global Campaign for Education, the world's richest countries are failing to provide the funds needed for education in the developing world.

Education & Gender

Often in Developing countries the education of girls is a low priority. Where families have to pay for school education it is boys who get and girls who go without.

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Adiatou Issaka is 12 years old and can’t read or write. She lives in Niger, one of the poorest countries on earth. She is one of 1.3 million children in Niger who don’t go to school. Adiatou’s local school is full and she spends her days pounding millet grain, fetching firewood and water. ’Sometimes the work is very very hard,’ she says. ’I want to learn to read and write.’

G8 countries currently spend $639m a year on basic education, about half the cost of one Stealth bomber. For the cost of just one of the Cruise missiles fired on Baghdad, around 100 schools could be built in Africa.

Across Africa, where education is such a scarce commodity, girls like Adiatou are losing out, as their brothers are usually given priority. In a knowledge-driven world economy, Africa’s education crisis is stunting its development. Education – particularly for girls – has a major role to play in the war against poverty. It can open doors to better health, increased income and independence.

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Cash Crops Many African countries are

encouraged by the World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund) to grow cash crops

Cash crops include tea, coffee, cotton and cocoa

International prices of can vary and farmers are often left with not enough money to buy food for their families.

The price paid to farmers is rarely fair

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•In Sudan farmers were encouraged to grow cotton & sugar.•In Tanzania farmers receive about £7 a month for the coffee they grow – the price paid to coffee farmers has not risen in 50 years but the profits made by coffee companies such as Nestle have increased.•Farmers are not growing crops they can live off of in difficult times.• Every year the developed countries give £35 billion in Aid to the developing nations but the developing nations lose out on £500 Billion in unfair Trade.

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G8 'failing to meet aid pledges'

Adapted from David Loyn BBC 9/6/6

Oxfam has criticised the G8 for adding debt write-off into the total development figure to make it look better. The

G8 countries made a commitment to increase development spending by $50bn a year by 2010.

The raw data showing a $21bn increase in development spending in 2005 over 2004 looks like real progress.

But Oxfam says 80% of that figure was in the one-off cancellation of debt to Nigeria & Iraq.

The beneficial effect to a country in cutting repayments and interest paid out in a single year on debts is much less than the overall capital figure that is written off.

Cont…

The Debt issue

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Debt cancellation has made a real difference. "Across Africa, lifting the burden of debt is allowing millions of $ to be directed to fighting poverty". But in lumping it in with other development payments the money is being

double counted.

"This may mask a failure to increase the underlying volume of real aid in line with Gleneagles."

The UK Govt. disputes this. It points to projects like an agreement to finance African education over 10 years,

moves towards access for all to Aids drugs, & a new Financing Facility for Immunisation as signs of progress

since Gleneagles.

30 years ago the most developed countries committed themselves to paying 0.7% of GNI for development assistance. Britain's budget [without debt repayments] is less than ½ this.

International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, said: "The government is on track to meet the 0.7% target by 2013."

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Over- Farming (also Deforestation & desertification)

Rapid increases in population have led to increased demand for food

Farmers no longer leave land fallow Crop yields decrease Trees & hedges are uprooted as marginal land is

farmed As the land becomes exhausted it cannot sustain

the the grasses & bushes which bind the soil. The topsoil is eroded.

E.g. 1900 40% of Ethiopia was covered in forests but by 2000 it had dropped to 4% -it is still falling

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World's dry regions set to expand Increasing desertification is threatening global efforts to tackle poverty and hunger, a 2005 UN report stated. .

•10-20% of drylands are already degraded unless practices change these areas will become unproductive.

•“The number of people affected by desertification is likely larger than any other contemporary environmental problem."

•Drylands cover 41% of the planet's land surface, and are growing. They are home to over two billion people, including the world's most impoverished, in areas such northern Africa.

•As land dries up, it becomes unsuitable for farming. This exacerbates poverty and creates environmental refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people will be in need of new homes over the next 30 years as the Earth dries up.

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Climate change Christian Aid Report - The Climate of Poverty: Facts, Fears and

Hopes, warns that 184 million people in Africa may die as a result of climate change by 2100. Climate-induced floods, famine,

drought, conflict & a growth in areas infested by malaria-carrying mosquitoes could cause a huge rise in deaths & could reverse

recent gains in reducing poverty.

Its report says rich nations must aid poorer ones to adopt non-fossil-fuel energy sources such as solar power.

Author, John McGhie, said that for $50bn (£26bn) the whole of sub-Saharan Africa could go solar-powered. $50bn is the amount

the continent would have to pay on extra fuel bills from oil."

The Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon dioxide emissions does not require major developing nations to make reductions.

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War¤Civil War – a war between factions inside one country

¤Disrupts and destroys both food production and distribution

¤1.5 million+ people killed in the 20 year long civil war in Sudan

¤Planting of Landmines injures civilians – limiting some of the workforce and prohibits the use of the mined land for farming. e.g. Angola 1997 (Est. 26 000 civilians worldwide killed or maimed by landmines each year)

¤Scorched earth policy –e.g.Ethiopia 1980s. The deliberate burning of land/crops to prevent their use by an advancing enemy (Sudanese Govt has been accused of this Darfur)

¤War creates refugees who are often farm workers - they are then unproductive and dependent on aid e.g. people from Sudan leaving for Chad or Ethiopia escape the fighting (2006 still an Est. 2 million refugees from Darfur)

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The movement of refugees in a war situation can rapidly change making it hard to plan aid - 2002 October – Ugandan Army had to organise emergency evacuation of 400,000+ civilians caught up in fighting against LRA.

Interrupts the economy - less food & less of a range of food in all affected areas (prices increase dramatically)

Money diverted to military – 1997 Angola spent $390 million on its military

¤ Fear - farmers (often women) too scared to go out and work the land especially if they have to travel

Food Aid may be attacked or hijacked – In Uganda attacks on the World Food Prog. stocks in Lira town prevented them from sending the food where it was desperately needed 2004. WFP trucks hijacked in Darfur Dec 2004.

War interrupts normal family/neighbourhood support networks

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"Civilian populations were the target of both parties to the conflict - the government troops had an interest to force civilians to leave rural areas and take them to areas under their control." Mr van der Borgt of MSF says. The conflict looked to have

ended in 2002 when the leader of the rebel forces, Savimbi, was killed. However fighting and violence have continued, most recently Feb 2004 –LRA rebels slaughter at least 200 people at a camp for displaced persons.

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Choose a country to look at: Sudan Angola Mozambique Ethiopia Somalia Sierra Leone

Find out what their civil war was aboutFind out the impact the war has had on

Development

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Darfur Region of SudanSudan has experienced continual Civil War for 25 years. The long running war between the North and South has ended but at the same time conflict was growing in the Darfur Region.In May 2006 the main sides in the Darfur War signed a peace agreement but smaller rebel groups have still to sign. Est. 70,000 people have been killed and 2m forced from their homes.

The Sudanese government is accused to backing the Arab Janjaweed militias in it’s attacks on the black

population. The Government denies

involvement.

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Problems in Darfur:

•Refugees in large numbers – starvation and malnutrition common in the refugee camps- easily for people suffering these problems to develop other illnesses as they are so weak

•Many men away fighting, dead or fled land leaving crops untended

•UN and NGOs have been attacked and some NGOs have been forced to quit the area e.g. Save the Children in Dec 2004.

•Scorched earth Policy? There have been many reports of the Government planes deliberately destroying crops in rebel controlled areas

•Use of terrorism to make people flee the land – killing of children, raping of women

•Many areas in Darfur are difficult to access especially during the raining season

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Dec 29th 2004 -UN suspends food aid for Darfur because of fighting.

The World Food Programme stopped its deliveries when road closures prevented 70 trucks carrying rations for some 260,000 people reaching Darfur.

Despite an April ceasefire, clashes between rebels, pro-government militias and the army continue.

The UN has called Darfur one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with some two million refugees relying on aid handouts since the conflict began nearly two years ago.

Truck theft - In another incident rebels have stolen 13 WFP trucks carrying food aid over the last two weeks of Dec 2004. Security continues to deteriorate and the African Union troops sent to protect the ceasefire monitors are having little impact on the fighting.

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Cholera in Sudan Southern Sudan has suffered over 500 cholera deaths since January 2006. Another 13,800 people have been

affected by the disease in the region.

WHO has warned the epidemic could spread to Sudan's neighbours, the agency confirmed reports it has spread to Darfurin June 2006, where 2.5m refugees live in squalid

conditions and close proximity.

Other countries in the region have seen isolated infections, but in Angola to the west, fatalities have

reached 1,200 since January and 35,000 others have been made ill.

WHO are delivering treatments - consisting of sugar and salt - to the affected areas. The medicine is essential for replacing the fluids and minerals the body loses when

cholera strikes.

BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/5076306.stm

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The Policies of Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe has been suffering because of the seizures of white owned farms by supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.

Many white farmers have deserted their farms & others have been warned to leave their land by early August of 2002.

This policy has led to a big drop in grain production which has not been helped by a lack of rain.

6M people need food aid. The country also has the highest rate of HIV/Aids amongst these countries.

Zimbabwe

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Radio Broadcast: Why the number of hungry children is

set to growListen to the broadcastTake notes on:- Why the numbers of the hungry will

increase in sub Saharan Africa How many African children are likely

to be hungry in the year 2020? What changes in world trade does

the International Food Policy Research Unit want?

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DroughtSevere drought has been causing problems across Southern Africa. In Zambia there has been total crop failure in the south of the country. In 2000/1 maize production fell by 30%. This meant there was little to store for this season.There is a similar picture in Eastern Zambia.

Malawi, Swaziland & Lesotho have also suffered from drought.

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After two years of devastating floods, a drought is now affecting parts of the country.

Rivers have dried up. Crops wither in the fields. Malaria & cholera are rampant.Nearly 600,000 people in Mozambique need food aid.

It is estimated that almost 14% of the population are affected by HIV/Aids. Along the main road between Zimbabwe & Malawi the rate is more than 20%

It has affected the middle generation most.Many grandparents are left to care for the children.

A dried-up river bed

Mozambique in 2002

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Locust

Jan 2005 - Locusts and drought have obliterated agricultural production in Mauritania, leaving 400,000 people in urgent need of food aid, the UN food agency says. Mauritania was the country worst hit by last year's locust invasion in West Africa.

Some 60% of Mauritania's population will not have enough to eat this year, says the World Food Programme.

The WFP appealed for $31m to fund a two-year aid project.

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Officials in the government of Malawi claim the the MFI told them to sell-off food surpluses in 2000 in

order to reduce its debt.

76% of Malawians lack food & more than 300 people have already died of hunger this year.

The IMF has denied that it gave this advice.It claims that the government took this action on the advice of an EU food consultant. It also claims that the government sold the food reserve which government policy says should always be kept in reserve.

Malawi had expected a bumper crop in 2001. When it became clear that this would not happen, grain prices rose by 400%.

The IMF in Malawi

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Both floods & drought are being blamed for the food shortages.

The worst affected countries are:-

Malawi

Zimbabwe &

Zambia.

Angola is also badly affected after decades of civil war.

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Somalia is the worst-hit African state, with damage concentrated in the region of Puntland, on the tip of the Horn of Africa. water destroyed 1,180 homes, smashed 2,400 boats and rendered freshwater wells and reservoirs unusable, the UN said in a report on 4 January. 300 Somalis are known to have died, with thousands more homeless and many fishermen still unaccounted for. About 50,000 people have been displaced. Aid: The UN has called for $13m to help tsunami victims. Aid agencies with small ground operations in Puntland have delivered food and relief supplies, as has a German Navy helicopter. Somalia is anarchic and has few roads, presenting aid agencies with a major challenge.

Tsunami 26/12/04