just1WORLD

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This dismal sub-continental under performance, which keeps hundreds of millions of Africans locked in perpetual poverty, is blamed on a combination of factors: climate change, bad geography, perennial famines, water shortages, pervasive illiteracy, chronic diseases, smouldering conflicts, weak institutions, tribalism, strangling bureaucracy, lack of property rights, dilapidated infrastructure, insufficient overseas aid, unpayable debts, restrictive trade barriers or transfer pricing/tax evasion by multinational corporations.

Most of the factors listed above are undoubtedly challenges but in other parts of the developing world many countries are successfully tackling them and getting on with the job of laying the foundations for improving living standards. What then prevents countries in sub-Saharan Africa, most of which have been independent now for nearly 60 years, from doing the same? The answer is CORRUPT and INCOMPETENT GOVERNMENT.

According to President Obama 'development depends on good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential.' Similarly, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reiterated this point when he stated that 'Africa suffers from a leadership deficit.' Again, in the same vein, Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese-born cellphone magnate, who sponsors the annual Ibrahim Index of African Governance, in delivering a recent report said that 'the main problem impeding our (African) development is governance - or rather the lack of it. All progress starts from good government; all drift and deprivation from feckless government.'

There may have been mitigating circumstances at independence some 50-60 years ago when many of these emerging nations started life with ex-guerrilla leaders who were ill-prepared and lacked the necessary skills, organisation and discipline needed to run a successful economy. However, this lack of ability, focus and drive still prevails across much of sub-Saharan Africa today meaning that people there are left continuing to lead wretched lives in crippling poverty. Yet that should all have been consigned to the past for as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has said, when it comes to governance 'there is ample evidence from around the world as to what works and what doesn't: the hard part for today's leaders is not knowing what to do, but doing it.'

The poor standard of governance and poverty of aspiration found in sub-Saharan Africa today are issues which African leaders and the international community have shamefully failed to confront for far too long. The African Union, basically a club comprising the current African leaders, is hypocritical - outwardly critical in words to appease the West but inwardly failing to censure its members and to foster positive change for fear of rocking the boat; western governments, afraid of losing influence or being branded neo-colonialist or racist, and with the need to justify the continuance of overseas aid to their electorates, prefer to sweep the glaring problems of corruption and mismanagement on the continent under the carpet, opting to believe, instead, that governance must be improving as economies grow; international non-government organisations (NGO's) like Save the Children, Christian Aid and ONE all do amazing work in Africa but for reasons known only to themselves are disingenuous when it comes to telling their supporters the truth about the main cause of poverty on the continent preferring, instead, to blame a shortfall in overseas aid, tax evasion by multinationals, etc.

Poor governance then is the (African) elephant in the room when it comes to tackling deprivation on the continent: deep down western governments and campaigning organisations know the problem exists but as the issue is politically sensitive few are willing to confront it. And so Africa's elites are allowed to carry on acting with impunity gorging themselves on the proceeds of mining rights, the sale of public land, bribes and often even ODA, whilst most of their people are left:

prostrated by pestilence,
perturbed by poor education,
paralysed by a paucity of provender,
parched by a lack of potable water,
pillaged by predatory presidents,
passed over by prejudice,
plundered by parasitic parliaments,
perpetuated in poverty.

And it could be said that this failure to confront the lack of leadership in sub-Saharan Africa lays western governments, international NGOs, churches and poverty campaigners open to the accusation of being complicit in keeping the majority of Africans poor. And it is not that Africa doesn't have talented people!

This weak and cowardly behaviour by us all in the West really needs to change for Black Lives Matter not just in the US, UK and EU but also across Africa where little thought seems to be given by campaigners to the plight of the bulk of the people living there in squalor. There are also ways of tackling the problem of governance without being confrontational.

In recent years some of the larger developing countries have made giant strides in increasing economic growth year on year and the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India,China and South Africa) now account for 24% of world GNI compared to just 12% ten years ago.

All of this has come at a price though in the increase in pollution leading to climate change which has led to more frequent and intense fires, floods, droughts, heatwaves and hurricanes across the globe. Areas affected by drought have doubled in the last 40 years, extreme rain and flooding are now 4 times more likely than 40 years ago whilst hurricanes are reckoned to be 60% more powerful than 50 years ago.

China currently accounts for 32.4% of world CO2 emissions followed by US 12.6%, EU 7.6%, India 6.7, Russia 4.7%, Japan 3%, Iran 2.1%, Indonesia 1.6% and S Korea 1.6%. South Africa accounts for 1.3% whilst UK for 1% along with Australia. However, taking CO2 emissions/population as a factor the US pollutes twice as much as China. Surprisingly, perhaps, top of the list for polluters taking populations into account are Qatar; Trindad & Tobago; Kuwait; United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brunei. According to the UN, carbon emissions have risen on average by 1.5% p.a. over the past decade and it warns that on current trends global temperatures are likely to increase by 3.7ºC by the end of the century if nothing is done.

In 2020, due mainly to the pandemic, global co2 emissions fell by 8%. At the same time, last year, the UK had the greenest electricity in the world with only 1.6% produced from coal. (Reaching even the above targets will require more use of electric cars, low-carbon heating, renewable energy and cutting down on meat eating, less international travel by plane and even buying fewer new clothes. Swedish climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg has told her parents that she wants no more new clothes!)

In December 2022 195 nations signed up to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework committing the world to halting and reversing bio-diversity loss by 2030. The target here is to protect 30% of the Earth's lands and oceans and should help slow the alarming rate of extinction of mammals, insects and all living creatures on the planet. In the last 50 years the world is estimated to have lost 70% of its animal population. Rich countries have promised US$20bn per annum by 2025 and US$30bn by 2030 to help the poorest nations deliver their biodiversity goals.

On a side issue, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 5 nations are responsible for 60% of global marine plastic - China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. The most polluted river in the world is the R Ciliwung which flows through Djakarta in Indonesia with an average of 18,000 pieces of plastic per hour. In Europe the most polluted river is the Seine in France with 700 pieces per hour. Thousands of seabirds, turtles, whales, seals and other creatures in the world's oceans are killed each year by ingesting plastic or becoming entangled in it.

Since the credit crises in 2008 and the Covid-19 epidemic of 2020/21, African economies have started to grow again thanks mainly to the insatiable demand for natural resources by China, US and EU. Unfortunately, though the gap between North and South may now be starting to close, the majority of Africans are no better off financially as few new jobs are being created, there are ever more mouths to feed and the domestic gap between the rich and poor continues to widen.

The world is also becoming more urban with more than half the population now living in towns and cities. And this proportion is likely to get bigger for economists calculate that urban dwellers are 50% more productive than rural workers and 30% more prosperous. Today across the world there are now also 33 megacities - large metropolitan areas with more than 10m people. The largest is Tokyo with 37.1m people followed by Delhi 32.9m, Shanghai 29.2m, Dhaka 23.2m, Sao Paulo 22.6m, Mexico City 22.2m,  Cairo 22.1m, Beijing 21.8m, Mumbai 21.3m and Osaka 19m. These conurbations are so vast that many people living in them have never seen the countryside! (In 1950 there were only 2 - New York and Tokyo.)

For most of us living in the North we still have everything we need to make the most of our lives. We live in comfortable well-heated homes within easy reach of shops where the shelves are stacked with food from all over the world, clean refreshing water gushes out of taps and costs very little, first-rate medical services are there for everyone from the cradle to the grave, schools give every child the golden ticket to compete in our modern world, where the choice of jobs has never been greater, and the welfare state is there for those falling on difficult times. At the same time infinite communications and entertainment can be easily accessed on our smart TVs/computers/mobile phones whilst future holidays are often planned before the next one has been taken.

Meanwhile, in most of the developing world, life as we know it, hangs in stark contrast.

Here 2.4bn people struggle to live on less than $2 (£1.60) per day, 2.5bn people have no access to a toilet, 663m people risk their lives everyday by drinking dirty water, 821m people go to bed hungry every night, medical services - where there are any - are overwhelmed and often unaffordable, 59m children do not attend primary school and electricity, which has powered economies in the North for almost 100 years, is still not available to 1.6bn people in the South. Then there are the horrendous living conditions in most shanty towns with stinking open sewers running through the streets where children play, leaking roofs that make everything damp for days on end and crime and violence that can erupt at any time in places where crushing poverty is a way of life.

Find out more about sub-Saharan African development: just1world@just1world.org