Alternatives to anarchy: Africa's transition from agricultural to industrial societies |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA;2. Tellus Institute, Boston, MA, USA;1. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, United States;2. International Development, Community and Environment Department, Clark University, United States;3. Department of Geography, Environment and Society, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, United States;4. International Food Policy Research Institute, United States;5. Climate Hazards Group, University of California Santa Barbara, United States;6. Department of Economics, Kasetsart University, Thailand;7. School of Global Environmental Sustainability, Colorado State University, United States;8. Climate Science and Applications Program, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), United States;1. Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA;2. USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, 5 Moon Library, SUNY-ESF, Syracuse, NY 13215, USA;1. International Development, Community and Environment Department, Clark University, 950 Main St, Worcester, MA 01610, United States;2. Humanitarian Response and Development Lab, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, 950 Main St, Worcester, MA 01610, United States;1. National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA;2. Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA;3. RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA;4. Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA;5. Grayken Center for Addiction, Clinical Addiction Research Education Unit, Boston Medical Center Boston, MA, USA;6. College of Medicine, University of Kentucky Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, Lexington, KY, USA;7. Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA;8. Columbia University School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, USA;9. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD, USA;10. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA;11. Center for Addiction Research, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA |
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| Abstract: | Policy makers, development assistance agencies, and the media paint a grim picture for Africa's twenty-first century. Famine, chaos, overpopulation, resource degradation, and anarchy are oft-cited buzzwords that have, in recent years, encouraged donors to abandon the continent. Africa is in trouble. But the buzzwords that precipitate donor withdrawal are symptoms, not causes. Africa is in trouble because the institutions of governance and management that external agencies have prescribed and national politicians embraced do not match the need. Colonial regimes in the early 20th century and development agencies in the later decades have imposed institutions of centralized decision-making at a time when most African states are navigating the treacherous shoals of transitions from agricultural to industrial societies. Central rule has enabled small and powerful elites to gain control of political and economic institutions and impose arbitrary and self-serving policies. Fragmented agricultural societies lack national institutions of accountability; many of Africa's people have therefore endured capricious rule with little opportunity for recourse.Alternatives exist to African anarchy. Poverty can be reduced, livelihoods improved, and resource degradation reversed. Eight brief case examples suggest how local planning and action, rooted in community based-institutions compatible with Africa's transition, have enabled village organizations to mobilize internal resources, link with external agencies, and implement action plans of their own design. Lessons learned suggest that structured and systematic tools that engage local people in decision-making can ease the agricultural-to-industrial transition, build local institutional capabilities, and strengthen the accountability that many Africa countries currently lack. |
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