sustainable development in africa

Table of contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………..1

1.1   Explanation of concepts……………………………………………2-3

1.2   Problem………………………………………………………………4

1.3 Objective………………………………………………………………5

1.4 Main discussion………………………………………………………5-8

1.4.1Sustainable development as an alternative framework to African development……………………………………………………………….5

1.4.2 Relevance of sustainable development to African development………………………………………………………………6-7

1.4.3 Critique of sustainable development to basic needs approach………………………………………………………………….7-8

Critism of sustainable development……………………………………10-11

1.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………9

1.6 Way forward………………………………………………………….9-10

1.7Bibliography………………………………………………………….11

INTRODUCTION

Sustainable development qualifies to be an alternative framework to African development because after the wounds of slavery, colonialism and false paradigms which led to chronic environmental socio economic cancer Africa really need to recover by using sustainable development .Sustainable development is the best prescription because it addresses social economic and environmental factors in a balanced manner. What then is sustainable development? According to the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 report, entitled Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report), sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Beckenstein et al, 1996:9.).Although this is one of the most agreed upon definition it does not clearly include social economic and environmental factors. The most appropriate definition could be that of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) which emphasizes environmental, social and economic concerns as three distinct, but interrelated components of sustainable development.

(ICLEI) defined sustainable development differently as a programme which changes the process of economic development so as to ensure a basic quality of life for all people at the same time protecting the ecosystems and community systems so as to make life possible and worthwhile. (Van der Merwe & Van der Merwe, 1999:5).

Although defining sustainable development has been a debatable issue among many scholars, it is important to note that, there are three interrelated elements in most definitions. Firstly, the aim of sustainable development is optimizing social needs. In other words, sustainability in terms of social needs includes fairness in distribution and opportunity, adequate provision of social services such as health and education, social equity, political accountability and participation (Carley & Christie, 2000:197). The second element is of creating a sustainable economic system through producing goods and services on a continuous basis to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production (Beckenstein et al, 1996:10).The third element is the environment. Environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resources and depletion of non-renewable resources only to the extent that investment is made in adequate substitutes. It includes maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability, and other ecosystems. Having critically analyzed the above three elements sustainable development implies that the social, economic and environmental needs of current generation should not be biased to the future generation. Thus, human betterment on the part of any group should not come at the expense of other groups today or in the future generations (Beckenstein et al, 1996:10).

In contrary to the above, the basic needs approach was formulated by United Nations International Labor Organizations (ILO.)  in 1976.It goes beyond economic growth by considering social improvements of the poor and resource -weak groups in the society. The improvements will be done through provision of basic needs such as food and shelter Therefore to some extend basic needs approach is relevant to African development (International Labor Organizations, 1976).

Explanation of concepts

The term Sustainable Development comprises of two elements which are sustainable and Development. Development is a multifaceted concept. In the past development  of Africa was understood purely in economic terms but nowadays it is widely accepted that development is more than economic growth thus development is also about distribution, reduction of unemployment and reduction of inequity.Sustanability is the ability to endure. Sustainable and development give us the concept sustainable development. Sustainable environment must be balanced thus it must meet the enviromental, social and economic needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generation.

 It is important to know the meaning of needs in order to understand the definition of sustainable dvelopment.Needs are essential things which human cannot survive with. Examples of basic needs are food, shelter and clothing. The importance of basic needs are clearly demonstrated by the basic needs approach. However the sustainable development approach does not go hand in hand with this approach. As compared to sustainable development, the basic needs approach is unsustainable to Africa since development is not about basic needs only. The basic needs approach does not bring solutions to African development. Thus it does not come with solutions for poverty alleviation although it talks about it. Poverty eradication must be the topmost priority in African development In other words it is Eurocentric in the sense that it satisfies the selfish desires of Europeans economists who want market for their goods in order to boost the western economies. In other words, the basic needs approach is a false paradigm to African development. Due to the false paradigms, African development has been hindered by debt crises, underdevelopment and untenable political relations. Having noted the above crises in Africa, sustainable development can boost the African development because it guides and give directions of how Africa should move her development thus it integrates social, economic and environmental factors. Using sustainable development as an alternative framework to African development will lead to good governance, eradication of poverty, economic recovery, and good management of environmental issues and empowering of the Africans in a sustainable manner. It is important to note that sustainable development accommodates the social, economic and environmental needs of the future. This is relevant to African development because If Africa balances her social, economic and environmental issues she can abolish the dependency syndrome on foreign aid and take the destiny into her own hands.

However, in reality, balancing social, economic and environmental aspects is rarely possible. For example, provision of adequate food to deal with malnutrition and eradication of poverty require changes in land use that will decrease biodiversity. Thus to reduce malnutrition the opportunity cost of biodiversity have to be forgone. More so, African countries may want to balance the environmental goals but economically they will not be able to do that For instance using non polluting energy sources to save the environment. In most cases non-polluting energy sources are more expensive, thus increasing the burden on the poor who cannot afford. For example in Zimbabwe, Binga community is overly reliant on wood fuel. This rise to environmental problems such as deforestation thereby retarding African development.

PROBLEM

Even though Sustainable development, leads to a healthier Africa, Africa is not yet sustainable. The major problem of Africa is that it is not yet sustainable socially economically and environmentally. As a group we have realized that sustainable development is very crucial and deserve to be used as an alternative framework  to African development because it  clearly give the best prescription for Africa’s chronic environmental social economic cancer. For instance, Africa is the only region in the world where poverty has increased both in absolute and relative terms. Apart from being the poorest region in the world, Africa remains the least developed, the most technologically backward, the most indebted, the most food-insecure and the most marginalized. Furthermore, malnutrition, diseases, environmental degradation, natural resource depletion, inadequate infrastructure, unemployment and weak institutional capacities continue to negatively affect African development thereby causing sustainable development challenges for Africa. The problem arises due to lack of consensus on the aims of sustainable development and what is exactly happening in Africa. Sustainable development policies should be implemented and should also be included on the budget of African countries for African continent to be sustainable in its development. Unsustainable Africa is further worsened by African leaders .They know what to do to develop Africa sustainably but they do not put it into action. More so they are corrupt. Instead of developing Africa sustainably they are interested in looting African resources at the expense of the poor.

Despite having many policies and strategies Africa has never been sustainable in her development. For instance policies of millennium development goals and NEPAD have been implemented but the truth is there is no change in Africa. Some policies even worsen the situation of Africa. Therefore sustainable development should be implemented correctly if Africa is to come out of the ravages of poverty which she is currently in. African countries should practically take sustainable development into action not just theorizing it. Until and unless the above mentioned is done sustainable development in Africa will not be feasible.

OBJECTIVE

The major objective of this research was to contribute towards an improved understanding of sustainable development as an alternative framework to African development. In order to archive this major objective we addressed the following specific objectives:

We explained the relevance of sustainable development to African development basing on the fact that sustainable development will address Africa’s key social, economic and environmental issues in a balanced manner .More so we did this considering the fact that sustainable development because it have the vision for the future thus vision for future generation of Africa  is necessary because Africa is one of the most poorest continent, most aid dependent, indebted and marginalized in the world despite the fact that it is one of the most resource endowed continent.

We also analyzed sustainable development as a critique to basic needs approach so as to encourage Africa not to just use policies that have been successful elsewhere but to design policies that actually fit in the context of African continent. Thus in Africa sustainable development is more appropriate because it is a prescription to the chronic environmental socio economic cancer of African continent. In other words sustainable development addresses social, economic and environmental factors in a balanced manner. In other words it encourages social advancement that accommodates the needs of current generation and the future at the same time integrating economic, and environmental consideration in decision making. Most importantly we did this research to encourage Africa to come up with strategies are appropriate to Africa not just to put policies which will satisfy the selfish desires of the European countries at the expense of Africa.

Relevance of sustainable development to African development

Sustainable development is relevant to African development because it addresses many if not all of the African’s burning issues. For instance Sustainable development aims at eradicating poverty this is relevant to African development because currently, half of  about 750 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $1 despite billions of dollars in foreign assistance. More so, majority of people from Sub Sahara Africa lack access to clean water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, quality health care, and other life-sustaining goods (Sarchs,2005).It is important to note that, sustainable development share a common vision with millennium development goals and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) on creating a sustainable Africa through eradicating poverty . The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is a commitment by African leaders to the people of Africa which came into being at the summit held in Lusaka in Zambia in 2001(NEPAD Secritariat, 2004). The seventh goal of the millennium development goals also supports this. It is of the view that for environment to be sustainable, sustainable development policies should be implemented so as to reverse environmental degradation.NEPAD, sustainable development and millennium development goals all work towards the goal of driving African economies towards a sustainable growth and social economic and environmental development. To substantiate this (NEPAD) realized that sustainable development can greatly contribute to employment socio economic empowerment and poverty reduction (NEPAD Secretariat, 2004). From the above one can deduce that sustainable development is really relevant to African development (Sachs, 2005).

However, when critically analyzing this, for Africa to be economically sustainable it has to disturb the environment because Africa’s economy is based on the natural resources thus, The extractive industry and the exportation of unprocessed raw materials constitutes the mainstay of many African economies. For example, Nigeria receives more than 90% of her foreign currency come from crude oil; Sierra Leone 60% from diamonds, Zambia 80% from copper, Zimbabwe, 75% from the sale of unprocessed tobbacco.Technology used for this is environmentally unfriendly. If Africa is to develop in a sustainable manner, the continent has to reverse its dependency on extractive industry. In addition to the above, World Bank also agreed that heavy dependence on natural resources lead to resource depletion and environmental degradation. Therefore as a result of this, the economy become week thereby increasing poverty and reversing social development (World Bank, 2003).

Critique of sustainable development to the basic needs approach

Although there is a controversy on sustainable development and the basic needs approach it is important to note that, they both talk about basic needs. In addition, sustainable development and basic needs approach can be used in addressing issues of African development. However, sustainable development and basic needs approach address issue of African development differently. Sustainable development integrates social, economic and environmental dimensions of development now and into the future. This clearly explains that sustainable development is inclusive of economic, environmental and social development of Africans. In contrary to this, the basic needs approach prioritizes the basic needs and it is of the view that basic needs are for the people. When critically analyzing this, sustainable development is better because it is includes social, economic and environmental factors in a balanced manner. However the basic needs approach talks about the basic needs only. It is a fact that basic needs are necessary but the truth is on their own they are insufficient. Instead of giving solutions of how Africans will eradicate poverty which was caused by slavery and colonialism it only talks of things like food and shelter. Concentrating on basic needs creates dependency syndrome. Therefore sustainable development is better than basic needs approach. Sustainable development includes economic development which also leads to social development at the same time conserving the environment (Baker, 2006)

The other critique of basic needs approach is that the basic needs approach does not take into consideration preservation of natural resources. Even if the environment deteriorates it does not matter as long as people get basic needs. It is important to note that the deterioration of natural environment causes social and economic disruptions at the same time impairing human health (Dobson, 1998:44). This approach fulfils the selfish desires of the western countries at the expense of African countries therefore it hinders African development. In other words it leads to development of underdevelopment. The above points clearly shows that basic needs approach has some loopholes and it is not sustainable to African development therefore sustainable development if properly implemented, it is the one which is most applicable to African development because it takes environmental issues into consideration unlike the basic needs approach which does not even mention about it (Baker,2006).

Basic needs approach focuses on human development .However, when critically analyzing the basic needs approach we find out that although it claims to put its focus on the human development it does not address issues of poverty, illiteracy, diseases unemployment and alleviation of poverty. More so, it does not even talk about capacitating the poor. The fact is human development is not possible as long as the poor are marginalized. In addition, although the basic needs approach talks about needs it does not consider the needs of the future generation.Infact the basic needs approach threatens the bases upon which future development depends. It talks about the present needs only. It is also important to note that prioritizing the basic needs stimulate the demand of economic goods by the poor which increase the accumulation of capital to the European. Thus basic needs approach is economistic and Eurocentric in nature therefore it does not apply to African development. Hence, sustainable development is a better approach because it considers the needs of the future. In other words it focuses upon protecting the common future socially, economically and environmentally (Preston, 1997).

Critism of sustainable development

However, although the sustainable development is relevant to African development it has some loopholes because it does not consider globalization as a way which can lead to African development. The truth is Africa cannot develop without globalization. More so, it is impractical for Africa to conserve its environment because it depends on natural resources. Furthermore, conserving the needs of future generation is a problem because what is relevant now may be irrelevant to the development of future generation.

Conclusion

Conclusively, In African development neither society nor the economy can survive without the environment. Thus sustainable development is appropriate to be used as an alternative framework to African development because it creates interdependence between the society, economy and the environment. The interdependency will result in development of Africa at the same opening up the future for the coming generations unlike the basic needs approach which talks of human development through basic needs. Basic needs are necessary but not sufficient because the truth is economic development cannot be isolated from environmental and social consequences.

Way forward

Although sustainable development is relevant to African development there is need for putting it into practice by implementing policies which deal with international economic and political systems which contradict with sustainable development of Africa. Africa has problem of implementation, difficulties of harmonizing, regional, national and global environmental issues and lack of political will on the Part of African leaders. Thus, for us to overthrow unsustainable development we need to be creative and develop a sustainable Africa in our own way. Furthermore, governments of Africa need to include sustainable development issues in the budget and politicians should stop fulfilling their selfish desires and Eurocentric desires at the expense of the majority of Africans. For instance many African leaders are allowing Europeans to do activities which harm the environment just because they gain money from it. This can be clearly demonstrated by what happened in Nigeria. Industrial waste was thrown in a river and it dried and all the trees near that river dried. A Politian was behind this because he was given money. There is need for political will among African leaders and there is need for doing what is right. African leaders know what is right but they do not put it into action. They proved it on NEPAD. However, despite these challenges, Africa has to balance social, economic and environmental issues for Africa to develop. Until and unless we put sustainable development into action we will continue to overpay high economic social and environmental prices.

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