Monday, November 17, 2008
Rethinking Development in Africa
From 3 to 5 November I participated at the Conference on Rethinking Development Studies in Africa, Sasakawa Conference Centre, University of Cape Coast.
The conference was organized by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), as a final event concluding a four-year project on education, research and sustainable development. Researchers from IDS and many important international guests were invited to present their papers on various aspects of development. The name of the Conference " Rethinking Development Studies" was well reflected in most of the presentations. New and critical opinions were expressed, and there was much opportunity for dialogue and discussions.
Two famous professors in the area of African Studies and Development were invited from the United States: Prof Pade Badru from the University of Maryland, and Prof Dennis Canterbury from the Eastern Connecticut State University.
Amongst the noteworthy lectures, there was an interesting presentation by Dr John Victor Mensah, director of IDS, about the effects of industrialization in Ghana. He proposed to strengthen linkages with the other economic sectors: i.e. agriculture and services.
Prof S.B. Kendie presented a fascinating paper pointing at the negative effects of western positivism in the development debate. This positivism is aimed at the construction of economic models, in which social and cultural factors are held constant, suggesting a universal scientific approach. This approach, which has been imposed on developing countries, may lead to gender inequalities, environmental destruction and social marginalisation. Prof Kendie suggested that an African perspective should be advocated in the development discourse based on linking traditional epistemologies.
Another interesting lecture was from Prof Pade Badru, on the problematic of economic development in Africa, in which western economic models failed woefully to bring the economic transformation to this continent. He proposed a bottom-up alternative model including participation of women, peasant farmers, and youths, to create a new reality.
Prof Dennis Canterbury advocated an alternative vision to the neo-liberal mercantile/classical political economy development vision. Depicting the current global financial crises as an example for the failure of the unregulated free-market approach and the focus of western countries on nation-states in stead of regions, he proposed an alternative, more focused on developing people. He also predicted the re-introduction of the Keynesian model into the current economic debate.
Dr Agbesinyale from IDS gave an overview on the impacts of the mining sector in Ghana. He demonstrated the relatively insignificant contribution by the mining sector for the Ghanaian economy (about 5 % of GNP only), with respect to its negative social impact. Mining in Ghana causes serious ecological en environmental hazards. Due to unsatisfactory and old-fashioned legislation and regulation, compliant to the open-market economic models, the financial revenues of this sector are just a very small percentage of the private revenues of the foreign corporate interests, which, according to free market and neo-liberal frameworks control the natural resources of Ghana. He proposed alternative policies for Ghana in order to regain control over its national mining resources. He mentioned Botwana and Tanzania as examples of African countries who managed to benefit from the mining sector, through improved legislation and governmental policy.
Bram Büscher from the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands presented a study which he performed in Southern Africa. He described what he argues are contemporary neoliberal ‘modes of politics’ around the concepts of consensus, anti-politics and marketing. Büscher came to these trends by closely observing policy making and management in a setting of transfrontier biodiversity conservation and development in Southern Africa. His research illustrates that these political trends are accompanied by the promotion of competition and commercialisation in every aspect of contemporary life.
The conference was concluded on Wednesday evening, November 5, with a traditional Ghanaian dinner with all the conference participants, and with music and dance at ‘crocodile place’ Hans Cottage Botel. The election of Barack Obama that very day, made the party even more special.
The conference was organized by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), as a final event concluding a four-year project on education, research and sustainable development. Researchers from IDS and many important international guests were invited to present their papers on various aspects of development. The name of the Conference " Rethinking Development Studies" was well reflected in most of the presentations. New and critical opinions were expressed, and there was much opportunity for dialogue and discussions.
Two famous professors in the area of African Studies and Development were invited from the United States: Prof Pade Badru from the University of Maryland, and Prof Dennis Canterbury from the Eastern Connecticut State University.
Amongst the noteworthy lectures, there was an interesting presentation by Dr John Victor Mensah, director of IDS, about the effects of industrialization in Ghana. He proposed to strengthen linkages with the other economic sectors: i.e. agriculture and services.
Prof S.B. Kendie presented a fascinating paper pointing at the negative effects of western positivism in the development debate. This positivism is aimed at the construction of economic models, in which social and cultural factors are held constant, suggesting a universal scientific approach. This approach, which has been imposed on developing countries, may lead to gender inequalities, environmental destruction and social marginalisation. Prof Kendie suggested that an African perspective should be advocated in the development discourse based on linking traditional epistemologies.
Another interesting lecture was from Prof Pade Badru, on the problematic of economic development in Africa, in which western economic models failed woefully to bring the economic transformation to this continent. He proposed a bottom-up alternative model including participation of women, peasant farmers, and youths, to create a new reality.
Prof Dennis Canterbury advocated an alternative vision to the neo-liberal mercantile/classical political economy development vision. Depicting the current global financial crises as an example for the failure of the unregulated free-market approach and the focus of western countries on nation-states in stead of regions, he proposed an alternative, more focused on developing people. He also predicted the re-introduction of the Keynesian model into the current economic debate.
Dr Agbesinyale from IDS gave an overview on the impacts of the mining sector in Ghana. He demonstrated the relatively insignificant contribution by the mining sector for the Ghanaian economy (about 5 % of GNP only), with respect to its negative social impact. Mining in Ghana causes serious ecological en environmental hazards. Due to unsatisfactory and old-fashioned legislation and regulation, compliant to the open-market economic models, the financial revenues of this sector are just a very small percentage of the private revenues of the foreign corporate interests, which, according to free market and neo-liberal frameworks control the natural resources of Ghana. He proposed alternative policies for Ghana in order to regain control over its national mining resources. He mentioned Botwana and Tanzania as examples of African countries who managed to benefit from the mining sector, through improved legislation and governmental policy.
Bram Büscher from the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands presented a study which he performed in Southern Africa. He described what he argues are contemporary neoliberal ‘modes of politics’ around the concepts of consensus, anti-politics and marketing. Büscher came to these trends by closely observing policy making and management in a setting of transfrontier biodiversity conservation and development in Southern Africa. His research illustrates that these political trends are accompanied by the promotion of competition and commercialisation in every aspect of contemporary life.
The conference was concluded on Wednesday evening, November 5, with a traditional Ghanaian dinner with all the conference participants, and with music and dance at ‘crocodile place’ Hans Cottage Botel. The election of Barack Obama that very day, made the party even more special.
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