The Need For Home-Grown Policies

The development paths travelled by African countries have been those identified for them by their masters or development (donor) partners such as the IMF and World bank. Such development paths have paternalistic underpinnings from them. The countries in Africa have failed to construct their own economic models and theories that are relevant in their settings. The trained economists and other technocrats that are entrusted with development of these states in Africa have variously engaged in copycat of policies. They do not understand the nature of the political, social, economic and cultural backgrounds of these states.

Development policies that have been pursued by these countries after independence have western background. Due to cultural and other differences, the policies and theories that are relied on have totally failed to produce the expected results. Development must be endogenous and as such its models must spring from within rather than outside the jurisdiction it is to be implemented. It must be owned and mastered as a process by its actors and beneficiaries. From economics to culture, countries in Africa have adopted a copycat style to the neglect of using their abilities to solve their internal problems. An evaluation of the happenings in these countries in terms of economics, culture, finance, banking and politics will reveal a paternalistic dependence on the west and colonial masters.

Keynesian models for economic development were developed in the west and countries in Africa and elsewhere model their economies around them. In the same vein, political parties’ operations, banking operations and their laws, democracy in itself, decentralisation and many other human activities are usually a miniature of those of the west. We have failed to reason on our own and have heavily depended on foreign examples. We have also relied on the instructions of institutions that do not understand the nitty-gritty of the workings of our institutions internally. As such, only little to none have been achieved from the implementation of the policies imposed on us. The weak institutions in the African continent do not permit an exact replication of the theories, models and experiences of the west. The development paths travelled by the west cannot be a blue-print for the African countries as the settings vary in many facets.

The continent has leaders that do not have the political will to lead and alter a change in many of the sectors of their economies as their western counterparts do. African leaders, specifically politicians, have their own interest at heart at the expense of the citizens. As described from above, they are constrained to implement the policies prescribed for them by the development partners in the west. African leaders including economists and finance ministers have been coerced to accept and pursue economic policies and models that are not relevant in this setting. The scope of these models and economic policies are out of reach of the poor African countries.

Instead, African countries need rather to brainstorm for ideas that are suitable to our economies. The individuals that execute development projects have of-times failed to consider the differences in the backgrounds of the countries developing the models and economic policies and those being advised to adopt them. The culture of a region, here a continent, a country and a subregion affects the sort of economic policies that are pursued. The African continent has weak institutional linkages. This affects the implementation of projects and programmes determined for these nations.

It is about time African countries together with their leaders took a decision to identify the key or core issues as well as factors that actually affect their development on their own. Relying on the external institutions to occasionally pinpoint the activities to undertake to spur development is unsafe. Those who make the models and policies have their equals residing in the countries on the continent. Governments need to move beyond the use of handouts and policy prescriptions to using their ingenuity to unravel the solutions that are pertinent to their development. It is proper to copy but only the good ones are allowed rather than indiscriminate copying the west.

The geographical differences and the cultural imbalances have much to do with successful implementation of projects and programmes. It is time to change things from within the countries on the continent by engaging the human resource and using them to our advantage. We can develop from within-endogenously, without relying on external support. The need for home-grown programmes with recourse to the culture, institutions, human resource and financial resources is lofty. The foreign examples need to be a guide and not just an exalted blue-print. The replication of the western-based models and economic policies and their failures are various. Such replications and failures must be halted. Home-grown policies are needed in all sectors of the economy. Use the universities to drive a change.