BRITISH AID CAN BOOST AFRICA'S GREEN GROWTH

The Financial Times articles mentioned below can be accessed for free by following the links.

On 28 January 2014 the FT published an article by chief foreign affairs correspondent Gideon Rachman entitled “Growth and globalisation cannot cure all the world’s ills”. With this article Mr Rachman questions the accepted trouble-shooting prescriptions that have been used by policy makers for the past twenty years.

YaleGlobal online, a publication of the MacMillan Center, gives a good summary of the article:

“Global leaders and elites, such as those who gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos, regard economic growth via globalization as the prescription for difficulty or political conflict, suggests Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times. But economic growth, globalization and capitalism do not necessarily curtail inequality, instability, environmental degradation, nationalist rivalries, jihad and the other stubborn quests for power that ignore democratic decision-making. Rachman identifies three areas of the concern: Syria and other places in the Middle East are beyond the fixes of economic rationality. The Chinese-Japanese rivalry intensifies despite the fact that China is “Japan’s largest trading partner and the biggest recipient of Japanese foreign investment” and Rachman points out that “in some respects, China’s growing prosperity is actually driving the increase in international tensions in Asia.” And in Europe and the United States, globalization has enriched many but contributes to wage stagnation and a widening inequality that could lead to more political extremism.” 

            What a coincidence that Gideon Rachman should write on the same day as the FT’s Africa Editor, Javier Blas, reports “UK shifts African aid focus to economic development” with its emphasis on growth.

Mr Rachman’s insights are particularly relevant for African aid because, despite being the world’s fastest growing region (by some accounts) and globalising at a dizzying pace, the benefits are by no means curing the continent of its many political, social and environmental ills, and in many respects are making them worse.

Mr Rachman’s well-argued Comment should therefore act as a signal to Justine Greening, head of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) , to make sure that investments that boost growth are sustainable and inclusive. In the current system this is easier said than done. Economic growth, measured by gross domestic product, has the tendency to have the opposite effect. The only known solution to this conundrum is through investments designed to boost green growth measured by green GDP, a 21st century accounting system not yet recognised in Africa or elsewhere.  

If, as Ms Greening says, DFID’s departure in the way the UK spends its aid budget is “radical”, “revolutionary” and yet “pragmatic”, this is a unique opportunity for her department to live up to those words and direct aid towards Africa’s emerging green economies instead of towards business-as-usual.

Britain has many advantages for supporting green growth in Africa including historical connections, unrivalled knowledge of the continent, leadership in green technologies and a deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who championed the green economy at the UN’s Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012.

2013 was the year of “Africa Rising”. With Britain's, and more specifically DFID’s, influence 2014 can be the year of Africa’s Rising Green Economy.

Related posts:

Africa's Green Voice Falls Silent: 2013 London Memorial to Meles Zenawi (30/06/13)

Britain's Role in Unlocking Africa's Green Economy (16/05/13)

A Letter to the FT: Europe's Role in Unlocking Africa's Green Economy (09/03/12)