The post yesterday
introduced a report by the World
Banks that combined several elements: colonial background, ethnicity, borders,
poverty and development. To a different extent, they have all contributed towards
the current socio-political situation in Africa at large. The posts todays
centers the attention on a related point addressed by the report: conflict.
Over the past 40 years, especially in the
last two decades or so, Africa has experienced a debilitating descent of states
into persistent internal conflict that has become an all-too-familiar
phenomenon across the region. In fact, conflicts are now arguably the single
most important determinant of poverty in Africa. According to IISS (the
International Institute for Strategic Studies), in 1999 Africa played host to
more than half the world’s conflicts as instability not only brewed within
countries but spilled over into neighboring states, resulting in catastrophic
wars within and among countries. While growing nationalism and ethnicity has
typified these conflicts, other factors such as abject poverty, lack of opportunities,
and corruption have contributed significantly.
Conflicts are bad public goods. They affect
not only the countries involved, but also neighboring countries through the
flow of refugees, drug activity, loss of remittances, and the loss of export
proceeds. Research shows that neighboring countries lose about 43 percent of
GDP and since the average number of conflict neighboring countries is 2.7, the
total cost of a conflict in one country is 115 percent of initial GDP of
neighboring countries.
On average, each country shares borders
with four countries, often with different trade and macroeconomic policy
regimes. Forty percent of the population lives in landlocked countries with
high transportation costs and poor trade facilitation.
The next posts will present reports (The
World Bank and UNESCO) related to African Growth and poverty.
Challenges
of African Growth (The World Bank)
Jorge
Emilio Núñez
Twitter:
@London1701
17th October 2018
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