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Mr. Delphin Rwegasira:
Africa needs a
"developmental state."
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To better manage the opportunities and risks of globalization, African countries need a "developmental
state" with a stronger capacity to formulate and implement policies, argues Mr. Delphin Rwegasira,
Executive Director of the Nairobi-based African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). In recent
years, however, many African economic programmes have tended to be
"donor-driven." and therefore not owned by African governments themselves. As a result, Mr. Rwegasira asserts, such programmes inevitably "fall
flat at the end of the day." He was speaking at a public forum on "African
Development in the 21st Century" held at UN University (UNU) headquarters
in Tokyo on 16 October, and jointly organized with the AERC, which promotes the training of African economists.
Many of the African economists, academics and policymakers who
took part in the day-long forum were up-beat about the relatively higher
growth rates achieved in Africa over the past few years, and most
believed that this was a reflection of Africa's own efforts. "What you see is
value being unlocked by reforms," affirmed Malawian Minister of Finance
Cassim Chilumpha.
Numerous participants voiced concern that Africa's higher growth rates
may not be sustained. Some worried about the impact of the current global
economic downturn, the fact that African investment and savings rates
remain low, and the prospect that aid flows may continue to decline. If there were one message that
she would convey to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, set to open three
days later, said Ms. Ruth Kagia, a World Bank sector manager for human development in Africa, it
would be that "political rhetoric is not enough; it's got to be backed up by resources."
Several speakers also expressed misgivings over the challenges of increased international competition, at a time when many African governments are ill-equipped to manage these new demands. In
part, commented Mr. A.M. Dirar, director for economic development of the organization of African
Unity, this is because the structural adjustment programmes carried out in many African countries have
led to a "wholesale sacking of state institutions."
The process of globalization could affect Africa positively, said Dr. Ernest Aryeetey of the University
of Ghana, reporting on behalf of a UNU-AERC expert group. But globalization also entails risks and
costs, he said, adding that "liberalization must be done with care." Since the private sector alone can-
not build up the infrastructure that Africa needs to develop and compete, public-private partnerships
are essential. But this requires strengthening Africa's state institutions, he stressed. "We need governments with the capacity to intervene where they are needed."
Mr. Thandika Mkandawire, Director of the UN Research Institute for Social Development, reviewed
the changing conceptions of the state's developmental role, from the early post-independence
assumption that the state was the primary agency of modernization to the view inherent in structural
adjustment programmes that the state is a "nuisance" standing in the way of the market. This shift was
an extreme one, however, leading to a destruction of African government institutions and the growing
dominance of donor agencies in the formulation of basic economic policy. Democracy has made major
advances in Africa during this decade, Mr. Mkandawire noted, but often this is a "choiceless democracy," in which elected governments have no right to determine their own budgets, given the conditionalities imposed by external financing agreements. If such constraints persist, he feared, "this will discredit democracy as an option."
Mr. Mkandawire - long an outspoken critic of authoritarian governments in Africa - argued forcefully that enhancing state capacities is essential for Africa's overall development, not only in the economic sphere, but also for nation-building and improving democratic interaction with society. African
governments must be in a position to manage their economies' competitiveness and make integration
into the global economy "a deliberate process." Building up Africa's institutions is vital, Mr. Mkandawire
stated, "even if that means slower growth," otherwise fast growth may lead to chaos within a few years.
"Hopefully," he concluded, "the crisis in Asia will once and for all undermine the dogma of markets, and lead to a serious revisiting of the role of the state."
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