West Africa Trade, Aid, Conflict, Fish, and Health
The proposed NCFCA West Africa topic is a big one and a good one for researching geography, economics, and international relations. West Africa has a big future as populations and economies surge. Christianity is surging too in West Africa. See for example Africa poised to be axis of Christianity, (Mail & Guardian, December 4, 2015): “…a mere two generations away, more than 50% of the world’s Christians will live in Africa.” See also Faith puts Ghana at heart of global Christianity (Reuters, February 28, 2017):
[Ghana] is central to a wave that puts West Africa at the heart of global Christianity, said professor Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu of Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra.
More than 70 percent of Ghana’s 26 million people are Christian. The statistics understate the fervency of everyday faith. Many attend church on weeknights. All night prayer vigils are common and billboards advertising Christian meetings line the streets.
People are still very poor in Ghana, Nigeria, and other West African countries. Why? A US AID post on the West Africa region titled ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TRADE, begins:
West African economic growth rates have been insufficient in most countries to make significant reductions in poverty. Essentially, West Africa’s farmers and firms produce and trade in highly localized markets and do not achieve the sufficient economies of scale required to attract broad-based investment that could accelerate growth and reduce poverty. This is due to a number of constraints including inefficient transportation and trade barriers along corridors and at borders, a heavy reliance on family and informal sources of financing, and an insufficient supply of reliable and affordable power. These factors result in West African products being uncompetitive in the international market place.
Missing from this list of challenges is broken governance and critics argue that US AID and other foreign aid agencies have been a significant part of the problem. Again recommended is the Poverty, Inc. video from an earlier post (Notes on Proposed NCFCA Resolutions).
Damaging legacy of slave trade and colonialism
African economic development was disrupted for centuries by the slave trade and colonialism. Plus sub-Saharan communities face climate and geographical challenges (Africa has few natural ports and navigable rivers, for example). For more on geography and development, see (though Angola is south of West Africa): The Geopolitics of Angola: An Exception to African Geography (Stratfor Worldview, May 7, 2012).
Sub-Saharan Africa is a region hostile to human development. Steep-sided plateaus, jungle-covered mountains, swampy coasts, rugged uplands and barren deserts dominate most of its terrain. These pervasive barriers impede almost every type of meaningful economic expansion in almost every part of the continent aside from South Africa’s coastal strip.
Economist Thomas Sowell writes in Geography and man have all but killed Africa (Deseret News, July 14, 2005):
The great French historian Fernand Braudel said, “In understanding black Africa, geography is more important than history.” Much of Africa’s history was in fact shaped by its geography.
Almost every great city in the world has risen on navigable waterways — and such waterways are more scarce in Africa than in any other continent. An aircraft carrier can dock on the Hudson River in midtown Manhattan, but there is not a single river where that is possible on the vast continent of Africa, which is larger than Europe or North America.
The proposed NCFCA resolution wording uses ECOWAS for list of West African countries, but doesn’t require reforming policies with the ECOWAS organization:
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform its policy toward one or more countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
From What is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)? (ThoughtCo., Updated April 15, 2018)
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was created by the Treaty of Lagos in Lagos, Nigeria, on 28 May 1975. It was created to promote economic trade, national cooperation, and monetary union, for growth and development throughout West Africa. …
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was created by the Treaty of Lagos in Lagos, Nigeria, on 28 May 1975. It was created to promote economic trade, national cooperation, and monetary union, for growth and development throughout West Africa.
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was designed to reduce trade and investment barriers between the U.S. and African countries. Deepening Regional Integration in Africa: Maximizing AGOA in ECOWAS for Economic Transformation (Wilson Center Africa Program, August 26, 2016) reviews current policies and prospects for reform. AGOA was signed in 2000 and expanded in 2015 and:
its impact has been substantial: AGOA has created an estimated 300,000 direct jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa and 120,000 in the United States. Still, it has been vastly underutilized. …
… regional integration is the key to maximizing the utilization of AGOA. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is considered one of the more effective economic blocs in Africa.2
Appropriate policies and a three-pronged approach are needed to maximize AGOA utilization in ECOWAS through regional integration.
The study recommends:
For the United States Government: a. The USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub should increase investment in export-led manufacturing.[described in study] and b. A post-AGOA policy framework is necessary [described in study].
Via Facebook I’ve been recommending various articles and videos related to the US/ECOWAS resolution.
Free trade and Brexit can help Africa flourish author Ibrahim B. Anoba discusses the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) to reduce trade barriers between African countries:
… The CFTA could increase trade within the region by an unprecedented 50 percent and create about $35 billion in benefits.
This is necessary, as intra-African trade only constitutes 18 percent of the continent’s total trade – an abysmal rating compared to the European Union’s (EU) 70 percent. But a well-implemented free trade treaty could increase trade and benefit the ever-growing population of the continent with more material resources. It would also likely give Africa an advantage in negotiating more equitable agreements with the EU.
Anoba is critical of European Union restrictions on trade with Africa and argues the CFTA would add to gains of Regional Trade Agreements like the ECOWAS:
Since the formalization of trade agreements between Europe and Africa in the mid-1900s, the EU has leveraged the weakness of intra-African trade to its benefit. Yet to this day, the AU is guilty of not building an environment allowing strong trade relations among African countries and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), which is necessary to propel development. This treaty has the potential to change that.
Beyond trade and investment agreements with and between African countries are fisheries issues off the West African coast. A United States Africa Command article from March 9, 2009 Protecting Fishing Part of Maritime Security, Africa Command Deputy Says,
Meeting with Ghanaian fishermen and West African navy personnel, U.S. Africa Command’s civilian deputy, Ambassador Mary C. Yates, stressed that maritime security includes protecting fishing grounds and building partnerships between militaries and civil authorities. This partnership, she said, can help to counter a host of illegal activities, including unregulated fishing and drug trafficking. Yates visited Ghana’s coastal cities of Takoradi and Sekondi in early March 2009, during a West Africa trip.
The fisheries problems continue and involve corruption in West African government fisheries agencies as well as foreign fishing fleets. Criminality in Africa’s Fishing Industry: A Threat to Human Security (Africa Center for Strategic Studies, June 6, 2017):
These problems are compounded by inadequate monitoring and surveillance efforts of the fishing sector by African governments as well as complicity between foreign fishing companies and the African ministries responsible for regulating fishing. At times, African political leaders have direct financial interests in joint ventures with foreign fishing companies. Fishing agreements are frequently opaque keeping basic information from public view, such as who is allowed to fish, how much they pay, and what they catch.
For an overview of religious conflicts in Nigeria see: The roots of Nigeria’s religious and ethnic conflict (Public Radio International, March 10, 2014). Mismanagement of the Nigerian economy limits economic opportunities and makes religious conflicts worse:
Mismanagement of national resources and misrule by multi-ethnic and multi-religious coalitions of successive rulers since independence have impoverished and denied opportunities to the majority of Nigerians. As a result, religious rhetoric blaming members of other religious communities and proposals for religious reform as a solution to society’s ills have found purchase among the masses.
The United Nations’ ‘Lords of Poverty’ (Reason, May 23, 2017) notes:
the United Nations’ World Health Organization “routinely spends about $200 million a year on travel—far more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health including AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria.” According to the WHO’s internal documents, which were obtained by the AP, “staffers are breaking the rules by booking perks like business class airplane tickets and rooms in five-star hotels.”
AP story: AP Exclusive: Strapped UN health agency spends big on travel
Here is Economic Thinking study guide (pdf) on economics of public health aid to Africa.
At a Texas program for Africa debate topic Kenyan entrepreneur June Arunga discussed the role of property rights in reducing tribal conflicts in Africa. (Why Property Rights Matter, Africa discussion, YouTube video.)