Challenges Facing African Development

Watu Wengi:

Demographic Changes, Human Displacement

Demographic Change Africa the fastest growing continent with 2.7%

growth, yet AIDS deaths impact the continent’s demography

Patterns across the continent Africa’s demographic transition Population pyramid in the context of AIDS “Children are a Blessing”: culture and

demographic changes Population and Development

Population Growth Patterns Population distribution varies throughout the

continent not in one state unit Sparsely populated in all bionomes yet distribution

uneven Cultural factors, historical factors

High population found in Lake Victoria Belt, coastal Nigeria, then pockets in places like Nairobi hinterland, and urban S.A.

Yet growth remains the fastest in the world despite highest mortality rates (life expectancy)

Effects of Migration?

Africa’s demographic transition

Sahel’s early transition

Ghana/Sudan’s accelerated transition

Population pyramid in the context of AIDS Interrupted Transitions, Reversed transitions, and

“re-stablized” transitions? What happens with population growth not

accompanied by industrialization http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/pyramids.html

Population pyramid in the context of AIDS Typical African Stair case, or holes in the center

What does this mean for the future?

What happens when most productive generation diminishes while least productive remain?

Will these patterns remain consistent within countries?

“Children are a Blessing”: culture and demographic changes

Strong cultural push for children Practical concerns in Agriculture, high mortality, and

extended family as social safety net Decline in natural birth control Cultural resistance

Birth control programs seen as outside intrusion and often racist (particularly S.A) and an attempt to destroy fertility

Cultural taboos against condoms Masculine virility

New cultural determinants: Girls in school

“Children are a Blessing”: culture and demographic changes Indigenous Knowledge and reduction of fertility

Avoidance of intercourse during breastfeeding But with destruction of indigenous culture and migration

some traditions being lost

Cultural Change toward fertility patterns? BC

Infertility is a major problem in Africa as well (Inhorn, 2002)

Outside cultural influences encouraging fertility Churches and others

Economic influences on fertility

Population and Development:Is population control central to development

Despite problems of development Africa’s population growth has the least environmental impact I=PAT

Scarcity thinking “With more people few resources to share” (remember Yapa’s social construction)

Neo-Malthus Hardin’s tragedy of commons and “life boat” ethics

Ester Boserup More people means conservation innovation Does the Greenbelt movement apply?

Displacement Migration a constant in African and World

History Labor Migration Brain Drain or Brain Circulation? Official Defined Refugees, IDPs, and repatriates

Migration a constant in African and World History Pre-colonial major group migrations Pastoralism Pilgrimages

West Africans stuck in Sudan on the way to Mecca (Bascom, 1989)

Ecological Migrants Rural to Urban migration (bright lights effect)

Modern Africa Industrial West

Labor Migration: Colonial Origins Colonial History of migration and labor reserves

Northern Uganda->Buganda land, Western Kenya->central highlands, Sahel in French West Africa

Forced labor migrations Slave trade Chief induced labor recruitment to white farms and mines

Labor migration and South Africa Witwatersrand Swazi labor 1915 Apartheid intra and international migration Post Apartheid xenophobia toward migrants

Beginning of labor migrancy Remember the hut tax

Labor Migration: Post-colonial Africa Modern Labor Migration at a more global level,

but local remains Niger and IC Africa and the Persian Gulf Connections between France and Mali Nigeria->Houston and Dublin (elite migration) Elite labor migration within Africa of educated

migrants filling labor shortages Remember Home Town Associations

Brain Drain or Brain Circulation? Educated professionals leave Africa for better

pay and lifestyle in west Some perform same jobs in other countries for higher

pay Intra-African elite migration

Kenyans taking higher skilled jobs in other EAC countries Nigerians are everywhere (Kenya airways flies to Lagos) South Africa and Botswana

Because of discrimination in host countries many “waste” skills in low skill work in the West, but might earn more doing menial work

“Academic” Labor migrants and likelihood of return (Trice, Andrea; Yoo, Jin Eun, 2007)

Brain Drain or Brain Circulation? Or is it circulation?

Kenya’s post Moi-economic success Role of Diaspora Story of Africa online and MIT Does circulation occur only in better off African countries? Remittances in not just money, but technology, and

information

Consequences to African Health Care 40% Saskatchewan doctors are African Yet all of African in profound medical human resource

problem

What will EU labor policies mean for African professionals working in Europe?

Official Defined Refugees, IDPs, and repatriates What is a refugee?

Defined as someone crossing an internationally recognized border fearing persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion by 1951 Refugee Convention

1974 OAU: Broader definition to include suffering due to “external aggression”, “foreign domination”, or “events disturbing public order in part of country”

Africa currently the largest source and host region of Refugees Internally Displaced Person (IDP)

Internally Displaced People do not receive official assistance and make up large number of displaced people

Remember the Kenyan Rift Valley IDPs IDPs might be larger than refugees e.g. Sudan and northern

Uganda Refoulement obligations and repatriation

Refoulement obligations and repatriation Refoulement: under international law a country

cannot return a refugee where they might face persecution

Repatriation of refugees is common across Africa and poses problems of infrastructure in the country of origin and sometimes where children have acculturated in the host country’s culture

Issues of right to work, aid, intermarriage and support in law, but not indeed

Locations of Africa’s refugees Source Countries

East/Central Africa: Sudan, DRC, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Chad

West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ioire Destination Countries

East/Central Africa (map 188): Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Some countries are both destination and source countries Sudan (Bascom, 1998)

Resettlement also occurs in some richer countries Asylum seekers and Asylees in the West

Burden on host country

Often poorest countries host largest number of refugees Strains on health, education, food security

What factors go into making a camp location? Kakuma, Dadaab Malkki’s Purity and Exile

Concerns of insecurity, disease, and basic cultural intrusion 2007 shutting down of the Somali border

Vulnerability to “refugees” Challenges of both self settled and camp refugees

Hunger

Refugees as scapegoats for national problems Articles on Kenya and Tanzania

Refoulement common Coerced repatriation “At risk refugees”

Camp insecurity Forced enlistment by armies (SPLA) Police shakedowns Rape or “Food for sex” Asylum seekers frequently tortured

Development and Refugees Refugee Populations and rural transformations

in East Africa (Bascom, 1998) Eritrean refugees coming to eastern Sudan provide

the surplus labor needed for the development of commercial agriculture in eastern Sudan

Purity and Exile (Malkiki, 1995) Political foundations of Burundi laid during Hutu exile

in Tanzania Refugee resettlement and rural development in

central Tz

Development and Refugees Challenges and opportunities of return

Skills neglected in exile experience Infrastructure often destroyed through war and neglect But in some cases returnees bring additional skills and

experiences from abroad to rebuild home country (e.g. Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf)

Challenges and opportunities of local integration Could take away jobs in already tight economy (Kenya,

S.A. problems) Arguments made that refugees contribute to economic

growth in host society (Garrissa Lodge)

Development and Migration Review Development

Sending area gets remittances

HTAs and Rural Homes

Host society receives new skills, needed labor, and innovation

Exchange of ideas and knowledge in sending and receiving areas

Underdevelopment Gender inequality

exacerbated Rural depopulation

and loss of agricultural productivity

Rootlessness, loss of IK, and local talent

“Reserve” labor lowers wages for workers