Human Development Essay

Taking a look at the Human Development Index map of Africa, which can be seen on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index) on the web; it shows that many of Africa’s countries are very underdeveloped.7 One of the obvious reasons for why countries is Africa are underachieving is because of how poor is the strength of their economy compared to others. As it is well known, Africa is very rich in mineral resources as many other states rely upon their, possessing most of the known minerals types of the world. Africa’s economy is more reliant on agriculture than that of any other continent, with around 60% of Africans working in the agricultural sector. Secondly, the economic development of virtually all African nations has been hindered by inadequate transportation systems. Most countries rely on road networks that are composed largely of dirt roads, which become impassable during the rainy seasons. Road networks tend to link the interior of a country to the coast; few road systems link adjacent countries.9 To show how poor and how bad economy crisis is in Africa, one ought to take a look at their food crisis and the growing volume of food imports. Whereas Africa imported an average volume of 1.96 million metric tons of agricultural products in the years 1961-63, by 1980-82 this figure had risen to 11.2 million metric tons at an annual value of over $6.8 billion (over one-seventh of the total value of Africa’s imports in 1982).Owing to foreign exchange constraints, most African countries have had to rely increasingly on food aid to meet their imported food requirements.10 The commercial sectors of most African states rely heavily on one or a few export commodities. The bulk of trade occurs with industrialized nations, which require raw materials and sell industrial and consumer goods. Trade between African states is limited by the competitive, rather than complementary, nature of their products and by trade barriers, such as tariffs, and the diversity of currencies. Looking at the economy of Europe, a sharp contrast in strength and influence can visibly be seen. Europe has long been a world leader in economic activities. As the birthplace of modern science and of the Industrial Revolution, Europe acquired technological superiority over the rest of the world, which gave it unquestioned dominance in the 19th Century. An important impetus for growth since the mid-20th Century has been the formation of supranational organisations such as the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Unlike Africa, Europe has highly developed transport systems, which are densest in the central part of the continent. Many countries in Europe use well maintained transportation systems to transport important goods such as water transport which plays a major role in the European economy. Almost all European countries maintain national airlines, and several, such as Air France, British Airways, Swissair, Germany, and Netherlands are major worldwide carriers.13 Looking at both economies and trade, it is unquestionably obvious that Europe conducts substantial international trade compared to Africa. For Europe, much of its trade is intra-continental, especially among members of the European Union, but also engages in large-scale trade with countries of other continents. Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands are among the world’s greatest trading nations. A large portion of European inter-continental trade involves the exporting of manufactured goods and the imp orting of raw materials. Europe’s agricultural sector is generally highly developed, especially in Western Europe. The agricultural sector in Europe is helped by the Common Agricultural Policy, which provides farmers with a minimal price for their products and subsidized their exports, which increases competitiveness for their products. This policy is highly controversial as it hampers free trade worldwide (protectionism sparks protectionism from other countries and trade blocs: the concept of trade wars) and is violating the concept of ‘fair trade’.15 Africa’s economy is more reliant on primary products (i.e, agricultural and mineral) than that of any other continent, with around 60% of Africans working in the agricultural sector. About three fifths of African farmers are subsistence farmers tilling small pots of land to feed their families, with only a minimal surplus that can be sold for other goods.16 However, there are significant number of large farms that grow cash crop such as coffee, cotton, cocoa, and rubber; these farms, normally operated by large corporations, cover tens of square kilometres and employ large number of labourers. Africa’s geography is unsuited to trade and thus hampers its economy. The centre of the continent, at least on the western side, is an almost impenetrable rainforest that greatly impedes the transit of people of goods. Some of the wealthiest parts of South Africa are blocked from the rest of Africa by the Kalahari Desert, while the Sahara creates an obvious barrier to trade. While Africa has a number of great river systems such as those of the Nile, Niger, Congo, and Zambezi, it is not nearly as well-linked rivers as are other areas such as Europe. Moreover, many of the rivers are blocked by rapids and cataracts that require vast development projects if they are to be bypassed. The wetness of the roads and tracks makes transport difficult and hazardous. In addition Africa is cut off from the sea to a greater extent than any other continent. To enforce even more problems to Africa; there is an increasing amount of desertification occurring in Africa where the deserts, especially the Sahara are becoming larger, enveloping area around them, leaving less space for land. This process is partly due to the deforestation of areas of forest; with no roots to hold soil in place, it blows away leaving an infertile desert. Europe has a well developed financial sector. Many European cities are financial centres with the City of London being the largest.19 The European financial sector is helped by the introduction of the euro as common currency. This has made it easier for European households and firms to invest in companies and deposit on banks in other European countries as exchange rate fluctuations are now non-existent in Europe. As mentioned above, Europe’s economy is superior to that of Africa, so what can Africa do to improve it’s economy or perhaps what can it take from the Europe economy as a model. Professor J A. van Ginkel held a conference on the ‘Knowledge and Development in Africa’; here he talked about ways to improve Africa’s economy however not only by getting the economic policies right.20 Prof van Ginkel mentions that there is now substantial evidence that institutional weakness in many African countries is a critical obstacle to economic performance.21 From the surveys he conducted on the obstacles to business in Africa it highlights the damage caused by: the unpredictability of changes in laws and policies, the unreliability of law enforcement, and the impact of corrupt bureaucracies.22 Unless governments eliminate these kinds of obstacles then it is unlikely that the economy whether it is just locally in certain parts of Africa or on a national front will flourish. An aspect of the Europe model that Africa can learn from is the aspect of knowledge. No commodity is more expensive than â€Å"knowledge†. An Africa without a sustainable, strong knowledge sector of its own will always remain in a dangerously dependent position. Research and training institutions on the continent can make a critical contribution in at least three ways: by making the most of existing indigenous knowledge; by accessing the vast reservoir of existing global knowledge, as well as the ongoing advances in understanding, and adapting them to suit specific local conditions; and by helping to find innovative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.23 In terms of human resources, it was highlighted in the ‘Seminars of Anticipation’ that African developments suffers from a tragic paradox: on the one hand, elites trained in Western world are too many (and most of them stay in the US or in the EU because they cannot find well-paid qualified positions in Af rica, or because their skills do not correspond to African needs); while on the other hand the well-trained intermediate executives required to manage a modern economy are cruelly missing in Africa (higher technical experts, management executives, civil administrators†¦). To conclude, this essay has looked the economies of both Europe and Africa and compared and contrast both of them. It has also provided information about both economies in terms of trade and finance. A brief history was provided which looked at the relationship between Europe and Africa and to the days of ‘colonisation’. Reasons as to why both regions are on different levels economically were provided to show how dominant and rich Europe was and how poor and underdeveloped Africa was. The Africa food crisis was mentioned to give an account of how poor Africa was against other regions. In addition ways that Africa can improve their economy thus bringing it more power and strength so that it can compete with other regions was provided, for example making sure Africa had the aqeduate education so that it learn. Many Africans move to the west so that they can have higher education which is not available in Africa and tend to stay there once they have completed their studies. This is detrimental to Africa’s development and thus a solution to the problem would be to support the creation of a complete curriculum. This would lead to a massive contribution to the development of vocational and technical education in Africa thus improving Africa’s economy. So as it can seen, the economies for both Europe and Africa are at this present time in contrast to each other but there is hope for Africa to become more dominant and influential in world affairs if the correct adjustments and policies are introduced to improve them. References Fawcett, L., & Hurrell, A., Regionalism in World Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995, pg 43  Ravenhill. J, Africa in economic crisis, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1986, pg 9  www.ciaonet.org/isa/rajo