Bennu: Africa innovating itself out of underdevelopment

ABSTRACT

This article is a direct challenge to the established view reflected in the World Bank's Berg report, that structural adjustment programmes and the markets alone will resolve Africa's underdevelopment challenges. This article completely accepts that science and technology lead to products and services that create efficiency, productivity and wealth. It accepts different dynasties of industrialisation from land use (agriculture and mining), labour-intensive activities, heavy machinery, assembly lines, branding, information technology and intellectual property, but shows how – in the current global paradigm – this has led to an anomaly: while development aid flows from more industrialised to less industrialised countries, larger sums of global investment capital leave poorer countries for richer countries in search of higher returns. Having accepted the ‘returns-seeking’ nature of capital, a strategy is proposed for Africa to engage with this reality. In contrast with the Berg view, it is argued that the public sector is a key stakeholder in the developmental process. As has been put forward by Thabo Mbeki, several African countries exhibit ‘two nations’ characteristics. If this is true, all seven dynasties of industrialisation can be simultaneously developed through interventionist government, which could not happen though markets alone. A direct policy and strategy positioning in technology-related sectors that support increasing returns should be developed. Economic development bodies should have scientific and technological people to ensure technological focus in development strategies.The article demonstrates that a different value paradigm is needed. Large numbers of poor people can provide markets for goods that can yield returns for capital that are similar to markets of small numbers of rich people. A shift in the development model from Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to Public Entrepreneur Private Partnerships (PEPP) is suggested to maximise employment through sustainable entrepreneurship. Through spearheaded emerging technologies such as information convergence technologies, cellular technologies such as mobile banking, resource management and alternate energy, Africans can create output that attracts global investment capital – and not only aid. This article explores how, through investment in activities that generate increasing rather than decreasing returns, Africa will innovate its way out of what appears to be a stubborn history of underdevelopment.     

Climate change: Double-edged sword for African trade and development

Abstract

African governments face increasing pressure from major export destinations, primarily former colonial and slave-owning countries, to be climate change compliant. This will certainly be on display at the upcoming December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which will seek to strengthen climate change rules agreed on in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, and adopt new protocols on global climate change regulation. Climate change is a double-edged sword: on one side it is hitting Africa's agricultural sector with increased droughts, floods, extreme frost and wildfires; and on the other, African governments are being forced to respond to stringent regulatory regimes imposed by international export destinations. Currently, the per capita greenhouse gas emissions from the highly industrialised nations – the North – is estimated to be four times that of Africa and the rest of the developing world. Twin research questions were investigated in this article: (1) to what extent does climate change impact on African trade and development, and (2) how can African governments stay on a path of sustained trade and development in this era of climate change? The article argues that Africa's survival in these times of climate change compliance rests on a shift to greater intra-African trade, as individual nations move towards cleaner and more organic technologies to become full-fledged partners in the international climate change regulatory regime.     

A Divided Family: Race,the Commonwealth and Brexit

Abstract

The Commonwealth has long been conceptualised as ‘a family of nations’ in a reflection of the size, diversity and shared values of the organisation. As the discussion in post-Brexit Britain engages with questions of race and immigration, it is important to consider the role the Commonwealth played in the referendum campaigns. The combination of the Leave campaign’s promises to reinforce ties with ‘kith and kin’ in Commonwealth countries with the xenophobia that defined the campaign prompts the question what exactly does the Commonwealth mean in modern Britain? The EU referendum revealed two Commonwealths—one reflecting the backgrounds of Britain’s ethnic minorities, and one centred on the three majority white nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This article will offer an investigation of these conflicting visions of the Commonwealth in the referendum, as well as the voting motivations of Commonwealth nationals and British citizens of Commonwealth descent.     

Examining the Shift to Services: Malaysia and China Compared

ABSTRACT

When do countries that pursue industrialisation through the development of their manufacturing sector shift to services? Does the shift take place because manufacturing development has matured with the development of indigenous technology? What is the role of policy in this shift? Understanding this shift is crucial due to the changing nature and role of services in development and its association with deindustrialisation. This article seeks to compare Malaysia and China’s shift from manufacturing to services and the challenges and prospects of such a shift. The main findings indicate that Malaysia’s shift occurred earlier than China’s and was prompted by the failure of its manufacturing sector to deepen as it has not produced any world-class domestic technology firms. China’s more recent shift is associated with on-going upgrading in its manufacturing sector while some global domestic technology firms have also emerged. Both countries used similar policies to drive this shift in response to domestic and external changes. The services sectors of both countries are still dominated by domestic market orientated, labour-intensive services. Developing competitive knowledge-intensive services in both countries will need a reform of their state-owned enterprises and the production of more talents that are needed for these types of services.     

Towards a Model for International Collaboration and Partnerships in Teacher Education in Africa: Education for Sustainable Development in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Education for sustainable development allows all to acquire the skills, attitudes, knowledge and values essential for a sustainable future. This article argues that there is an urgent need to include sustainable development aspects in teaching and learning at all levels of education. Implementing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) poses a new challenge for teachers and teacher educators. The role of international collaboration, partnerships and networking is increasingly becoming important in creating sustainable solutions towards green economies and programmes. The post-2015 global agenda for sustainable development should recognise the need for regional and international collaborations in forging lasting strategies for a sustainable future where education for all is relevant, reliable and accessible.

This article proposes a model for collaboration based on analyses conducted on a project on education for sustainable development programme involving key success factors for collaboration and focussing on the local and global stakeholders and their role in enhancing ESD among teachers. For this purpose, the four partner countries: South Africa, India, Mexico and India were examined to understand how ESD is implemented; how experiences are shared; and best practices incorporated into the programme. Local and global experts (ESD-Expert-net members) who developed an international core curriculum for teachers were involved. From the pilot, four country programmes, a conceptual model of seven levels of collaboration and partnerships for education for sustainable development to enhance teacher development among local and international partners was developed. This model is proposed to serve as a framework for education for sustainable development implementation in multinational collaborations and is discussed in relation to the post-2015 sustainable development perspective.     

‘The association that dissociates’ – narratives of local political resistance in Kosovo and the delayed implementation of the Brussels Agreement

ABSTRACT

The existing literature on the EU’s transformative role in the Balkans looks at EU conditionality as a unidirectional system of rewards that is expected to motivate local elites to comply with EU rules. This article raises a different question: how do local actors bypass the implementation phase of EU conditionality and what kind of political resistance narratives do they use for this purpose? The analysis attempts to tackle these inter-related questions by focusing on the delayed implementation of the Brussels Agreement between Belgrade and Pristina as a case study, using the interpretive method of narrative analysis. The article aims to link fieldwork empirics with theoretical discussions in the field of EU compliance literature by stressing the importance of local actors’ resistance to EU incentives. Three levels of analysis will be conducted in order to address the research question: (1) mapping different types of actors at the local level and stressing their heterogeneity; (2) understanding how local resistance to EU pressure evolved in the period 2013–2016; and (3) showing how their policy narratives influenced the implementation phase and the maintenance of the status quo. In conclusion, the analysis shows that the EU’s mediation strategy of ‘constructive ambiguity’ favours local actors’ political resistance, particularly in the implementation phase. The main findings show that ‘dividers’ outnumber ‘connectors’ in local actors’ narratives, thus strengthening political resistance to EU pressure.     

A critical understanding of good governance and leadership concepts written in the context of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the challenges to contextual discourse on Africa's development paradigms1

ABSTRACT

Good governance is a value-laden concept that is characteristically nebulous; it can mean different things to different people, depending on the context in which it is used. The same applies to leadership. Concepts, as Pauw (1999a, 465) puts it, are ‘tools of thinking’ and contexts are ‘the environments or frameworks in which they [concepts] operate’. Lucidity in the meanings of concepts is fundamentally important for shaping debate and enriching discourses. To maintain their power, concepts must be used in their proper contexts. This necessitates an understanding of the art of contextual discourse. Good governance is used in NEPAD as a principle and emphasised as a sine qua non for sustainable development in Africa. On the other hand, NEPAD premises Africa's re-birth or Renaissance on good governance and leadership, with a vision and commitment to repositioning the continent in global power balances. In this article good governance and leadership are considered as concepts. NEPAD is a textual context within which the two key concepts are used and should, consequently, be engaged. The article attempts a critical review of African scholarship engagement with good governance and leadership within the NEPAD context to determine the extent to which contextual discourse is practised. It further grapples with the immediate historical background to scholarship on Africa's development between the 1960s and early 1990s. The exercise reveals that much of the accumulated body of African scholarship and scholarship on Africa's development reviewed does not suffciently contextualise discourse on good governance and leadership within NEPAD, and its key assessment and monitoring device, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), and offers an alternative framework.     

The Commonwealth of Nations and the EU after the ‘Global’ Crisis: Rethinking Post-2015 ‘Global’ Development?

Abstract

The continuing ‘global’ crisis has accelerated divergences between regions, especially between the ‘rising’ global South, the European Union (EU) of the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) and Cyprus, which belongs to both the Commonwealth and the EU. This article studies the emerging ‘vertical’ divergences between the EU and the global South, especially around the so-called Economic Partnership Agreements, and the parallel ‘horizontal’ divergences among Anglophone, Francophone (the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) and Lusophone (the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) Commonwealths, with their inheritance of emulation and competition. It focuses on the possibilities of enhanced human/citizen security to propose an analysis that challenges established perspectives and points towards prospects for Commonwealth ‘schools’ of international relations/development.     

The European Union in Sudan: A Missed Opportunity?

Abstract

International organisations active in Africa are often criticised for their ineffectiveness. So too is the European Union (EU), which is also accused of failing to assume a more prominent conflict management role in war-torn countries. This article examines the EU’s capacity and readiness to take on such a role in one such country, the former Republic of Sudan, home to Africa’s longest-running civil wars and the first ‘genocide’ of the 21st century. It begins by outlining the EU’s record in Darfur and the North–South Peace Process. Drawing upon 25 interviews and Hill’s ‘capabilities–expectations model’, it then questions whether the EU’s ‘capabilities’ (resources, instruments, unity) were ‘fit for purpose’ in Sudan’s hostile target setting. It concludes by identifying settings that have been more propitious for a conflict-related management function and by suggesting that the EU should better manage expectations about future security roles.     

Transitions from dirty to clean energy in low-income countries: insights from Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT

Air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels in developing counties is a global challenge due its climate change and health effects. Dirty fuel and air pollution have become a serious issue in many Central Asian countries. This article studies the factors that affect household decisions to transition from dirty energy to clean modern fuels using panel data from Kyrgyzstan. The article argues that the choice of fuel depends on a number of endogenous and exogenous factors. Contrary to the conventional wisdom of the ‘energy ladder’ hypothesis, high income does not lead to a full switch to modern fuel, but rather facilitates the transition to consumption of energy from multiple fuel sources. Factors that increase the chances of full fuel transition are education and access to gas. By contrast, the number of elderly family members and size of the house negatively affect the transition to clean energy use.     

The body global and the body traditional: a digital ethnography of Instagram and nationalism in Kazakhstan and Russia

ABSTRACT

What is the power of social media in defining and policing sexual identities and bodily expressions, and what are their connections to understanding nation, power and self in authoritarian contexts? Through the study of popular Instagram accounts in Kazakhstan and Russia, I argue that these sites serve as spaces of visualization and re-creation of new forms of ‘acceptable’ behaviour and lifestyles, that on the one hand may lead to new globalized visions of sexual identity and the body while on the other promoting localized conflict and resentment online, triggered by online users’ fear of losing their ‘national culture’ in these global trends. While many resort to policing gender norms and heteronormative body images online, influencers and Instagrammers from Russia and Kazakhstan take an active part in resisting these frameworks and categories.     

Commonwealth Engagement in Education: Prospects in the Era of SDGs

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses Commonwealth engagement in education against a background of issues, trends, and partnerships in education. It argues for reforms towards a ‘New Commonwealth’ that is fit for the 21^st century; embracing the celebration of diversity and moving beyond the donor/recipient model of development. The relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability of education engagement by the Commonwealth are gauged in relation to the focus of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) on the indigenous, immigrant, refugee, and other disadvantaged populations. The paper explores education challenges facing these population groups and proposes some options or niche areas that may be considered for Commonwealth engagement in education. The first option is engagement in the influential Global Partnership for Education (GPE), where Commonwealth countries already operate, and synergies are possible with UNICEF, UNESCO, and the World Bank. Second is pan-Commonwealth ‘facilities’ for implementing bi-lateral projects. Third is Commonwealth Talent Academies to address youth unemployment and illegal migration. Fourth is using COL to enhance distance learning leadership. Fifth is a Commonwealth Teachers Exchange Scheme to ‘right-size’ teaching forces. Sixth is the Commonwealth Remittances Transaction Cost Reduction initiative. Viability of these options will depend on the appetite for reform towards a multi-polar Commonwealth with financial burden sharing.     

Demonizing the enemy: the influence of Russian state-sponsored media on American audiences

ABSTRACT

There is growing anxiety about the influence of international propaganda on public opinion. Under what conditions can countries shift foreign public opinion against an adversary? Does making people aware that news is coming from a foreign source mitigate its influence? I examine these questions in the context of Russian propaganda in the United States. I subject subgroups of Americans to an article from Russia Today (RT), a Russian international television network, criticizing the Ukrainian government. I vary whether audiences are aware of the message source, and/or the intentions, of the Russian-funded network. I show that exposure to information about Ukrainian human rights violations lowers Americans’ evaluations of Ukraine irrespective of source awareness – indicating that making people more aware of foreign propaganda does not attenuate its influence. The findings have important implications for understanding the micro-level effects of international propaganda and the effectiveness of counter-propaganda strategies.     

Main-streaming the climate change and green growth agenda into development visions: A narrative from selected sub-Sahara African countries

Abstract

Primary commodities continue to play a critical role in the economic development of many economies in Africa. However, the climate change phenomenon is threatening the role of these commodities through two routes. First, through its demand for a development trajectory that mitigates and adapts to climate change by following a less primary commodities-intensive development agenda, and second, climate change induced extreme weather events such as floods and drought that threaten the production of some of these commodities, Through a case study of four primary commodities-intense African economies: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Cameroon, this article examines the degree and intensity of the articulation of the climate change and green growth agenda in the policy documents that shape the development agendas of these countries. The findings indicate a paucity of discussions on the green growth agenda in the development visions of all the countries except South Africa. In contrast, there is a general discussion of the challenges that climate change poses to the development efforts and articulation of the need to mitigate and adapt to these challenges. The need for mitigation and adaptation is proactively articulated in the post-2007 development visions of South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon and retrospectively discussed through complementary policy documents supporting the pre-2007 development vision of Kenya. What remains to be determined, is how these visions will be translated into specific policies and implemented in order to enable these economies to adapt to and mitigate climate change in a manner that allows them to sustainably exploit some of their primary commodities and to compete in a world that in the future will increasingly demand green products and services.     

Ubuntu and sumak kawsay: The Inter-Parliamentary Union and the search for a global South humanist paradigm of development

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) continuously seeks to assert itself as a voice of the peoples of the world in global debates, where geopolitical interests of states, often representing political and economic elites, dominate. This article critically analyses one of the latest contributions to norm setting and idea-generation by the IPU: the concepts of ubuntu and sumak kawsay (also known as buen vivir in Spanish and living well in English) as the basis for the international response to the challenge of failed development strategies globally. This proposal from the IPU arises from the exhaustion of the dominant discourses and concepts underpinning international development. These discourses are based on the colonial model of power and are increasingly being challenged by calls from subaltern voices for ‘unthinking, rethinking and delinking’ from hegemonic illusions. Further, the article argues, the proposed ideals of ‘living well’ and ‘human solidarity’ cannot be implemented within the current colonially inspired humanist paradigm, but require a ‘decolonial’ orientation of global humanism.     

Restoring degraded landscapes: Assessing the utility of biodiversity offsets for the business sector in Africa

Abstract

Increasing pressure for the conversion of tropical and sub-tropical wetlands and forests to alternative land usage raises the possibility that biodiversity offsets will increasingly take centre stage in biodiversity conservation planning and ecosystem restoration discourses. This article explores the major discourses on and utility of biodiversity offsets in the African context with a view to identifying and articulating some of the challenges and opportunities evident in attempts to operationalise the concept in practice. The discussion establishes that as intuitively pleasing as they have become in recent years, with potentially large benefits expected to be derived from offset initiatives, several significant hurdles need to be overcome for them to become well established practice in Africa. For instance, some observers have argued strongly that, in practice, land use and wetland mitigation in most countries have come nowhere near achieving the goal of ‘no-net-loss’. There are also enduring questions about the credibility of the formulae used to calculate net-losses and net-gains in biodiversity offset schemes. In the light of these and other outstanding questions, the article concludes that biodiversity offsets may seem simple but are much more complex to design and implement to the extent that they become really convincing as a conservation tool for businesses in Africa.     

The ‘science’ of superiority: Africa and scholarly colonial assumptions

ABSTRACT

The use of ‘neopatrimonialism’ as a category in mainstream scholarship on African polities and economies is ubiquitous. A critique by Thandika Mkandawire has shown that the ‘neopatrimonial school’ is devoid of conceptual coherence and analytical power – it is an expression of a prejudice, not a useful tool for research and analysis. The article endorses Mkandawire's view but points out that this is by no means the only example of its kind. On the contrary, the use of categories which assume the superiority of societies in the global North over those in Africa is widespread. The article illustrates this by discussing and criticising two others, the ‘democratic consolidation’ paradigm and the ‘failed state’ framework. It argues that all three shape assumptions by scholars in Africa as well as outside it which obstruct concrete analysis. A critique of these paradigms is thus essential to the development of scholarship on and about Africa.     

Drivers of China’s Regional Infrastructure Diplomacy: The Case of the Sino-Thai Railway Project

ABSTRACT

The land-based Silk Road Economic Belt, as a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has become central for the country’s economic diplomacy since 2013. As part of these initiatives, Chinese authorities have been keen to expand their high-speed railways across the country’s border into neighbouring countries. Thailand has been one of the front-runners in negotiating high-speed railway projects with China. This article seeks to answer the following questions: what are the driving forces behind the land-based Silk Road Belt; what are the rationales behind the Sino-Thai rail project; and how can the process and outcome of Sino-Thai negotiations be understood? These questions reflect on whether we are witnessing Chinese economic diplomacy to advance commercial and wider economic goals or Chinese economic statecraft to serve foreign policy objectives. Overall, after examining the evidence, the article argues that Silk Road Economic Belt diplomacy and the Sino-Thai rail project are driven predominantly by economic motivations.