In Africa Report, Donald Kaberuka on a failed industrial policy:
The kind of industrialisation that we were embarking upon (post-independence) was called import substitution. And that was a dead end, going nowhere. While the rest of the world was doing export-led industrialising, making shoes, clothes and so on, we were closing off our markets with high tariffs and it was not working. So the idea of stopping this kind of industrialisation, I agree with.More here
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Nathalie Rothschild writes in Spiked:
...why are NGOs like Survival International and International Rivers, which are spearheading the protest against Gibe III, not focusing their efforts on lobbying for investment in smart, ambitious and truly sustainable solutions to prevent the disastrous, and avoidable, effects of floods which every year displace, kill and plunge thousands into poverty? Why are they opposing large-scale development projects – like dams – that could contain the impact of both droughts and torrential downpours?More here
The answer is because their interest in preserving the lifestyles of ‘indigenous peoples’ really means that they do not want Ethiopia and other poor nations to modernise and have what we in the West have: industrialisation.
Moeletsi Mbeki writes(pdf) "...When the colonies in Africa and Asia became independent, their political leaders were faced with two main challenges: achieving domestic political stability and transforming their economies from the production of raw materials to industrial production...At the root of Africa’s problems is ruling political elites that have misused the economic surplus generated by the African continent over the last 40 years. African political elites have exploited their position in order to
■ bolster their standard of living to Western levels,
■ undertake loss-making industrialisation projects that were not supported by the necessary technical,managerial, and educational development, and
■ transfer vast amounts of money from agriculture and mineral extraction to overseas private bank accounts, while borrowing vast amounts from developed countries.What were the results of those predatory policies? According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which have become Africa’s fairy godparents, Africans are poor and getting poorer..."
Via Global Growth Org
For half a century, science and technology (S&T) have promised to bring prosperity to Sub-Saharan Africa, but little progress has been made. This is in part because the African way of making and trading is largely informal, and Western industrialisation has failed to respect informality.On traditional science parks:
Western science and economics can drive technological advances in the developing world but work better in a system where processes are formalised. What happens, for example, when governments or multilateral institutions introduce factories and corporate parks?More here
Not much. A factory might employ a dozen skilled workers, but the investment rarely trickles down to the 'indigenous' economy. And enterprises may only import raw materials and export the resulting goods, creating a closed loop with no links to domestic industry.
Bright B. Simons writes:
...one thread runs through the post-colonial experience of African industrialization. Upon attaining independence, most African states rushed to implement industrial policies that vastly overstated the capacity of existing infrastructure, market development, and sometimes even managerial and technical resources...Frequently the drive towards installing manufacturing capacity was fuelled by the grandiosity of political dreams and the strategies themselves were usually left to the smothering care of hand-wringing bureaucrats.
Suame is a major suburb in Kumasi. "Suame Magazine" (SM) is a huge sprawl somewhat plastered centrally across a huge swathe of Kumasi's middle. As far as most folks can remember, SM has been an amazing labyrinth of garages, workshops, tool shacks, machine mini-marts, outdoor laboratories, greasy foundries, and assorted furnaces-on-wheels. It is a place awash with urban myth, and steeped in a changeless flux of activity. What that means is that the hum may never stop, yet regardless how long one stays away, on return SM always feels and looks the same...The long-term strategy of SMIDO is to turn Suame Magazine into an industrial village befitting the 21st century...[continue reading]
A Goldman Sachs report highlights the quickening pace of industrialization worldwide.It states:
That the pace of development in today’s emerging economies is accelerating, intensifying the speed with which the associated changes in demand in those economies occur.The result is said to be a “compressing of the development process, with unprecedented levels of infrastructure investment squeezed into a shorter timeframe than occurred in already-developed economies, followed by a more rapid transition into consumer economies.”
A paper by Amollo Lorraine presented at Changing the Change, explores the possibilities of evolving Jua Kali's into medium sized industries:
The Western concept of industrialisation has met with little success in most African countries. The poor performance of industries has led to the emergence of micro and small scale industries. In Kenya, these micro and small scale industries have been commonly referred to as ‘Jua Kali’ industries. The term ‘Jua Kali’ is Swahili for ‘Hot sun’ referring to the open air working conditions of the entrepreneurs. Most Jua Kali industries start off and remain as informal enterprises as their owners often cannot afford the expensive and rigorous process of registering with the relevant Government bodies. This informality means that the Jua kali businesses have found it hard to access business development services or export markets as compared to the formal and larger industries. (King 1995, 24-30). The Jua Kali entrepreneurs as result remain poor and their businesses small and uncompetitive. Though the Government has recognized the potential of the Jua Kali sector as an employment opportunity for many Kenyans, it has failed to create an enabling and sustainable environment for these micro and small industries to grow...[continue reading]