From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:AFRICA: Small farmers crucial to economic recovery, says UNICEF
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 13:45:56 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1993, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
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Title: AFRICA: Small farmers crucial to economic recovery, says UNICEF


an inter press service feature

by candy gourlay

london, jan 18 (ips) -- africa's small-scale farmers and
industries hold the key to arresting an economic slide created by
flawed development programmes of the 1970s and 1980s, says a new
report by the united nations children's fund (unicef).

it is in the small farmer and small and medium-sized industries
that african states will find some salvation, unicef says. the
proposal advocates what politically are potentially explosive
programmes such as substantial land redistribution.

unicef, citing the success of similar programmes in south-east
asia and parts of africa, also proposes increased access to
credit, foreign exchange, schooling and training, and support
services in agriculture and industry.

the report, billed as an ''alternative development strategy'' to
programmes authored by the world bank and international monetary
fund (imf), builds on the lessons of the ''development debacle''
in africa of the past three decades.

the world bank and imf had introduced so-called structural
adjustment programmes (saps) throughout the 1980s specifically to
''lift africa out of the quagmire of detrimental policies'', and
the deteriorating economic world environment.

but though such programmes became the focus of economic policy-
making on the content, the so-called ''adjustment decade'' of the
eighties ended with most african countries suffering a stagnant or
shrinking industrial base and unstable growth in the foodcrop
sector -- their over-dependence on primary commodities unaltered.

''let no one ignore the fact that many countries in the seventies
and sixties neglected agriculture,'' says richard jolly, unicef
deputy executive editor. ''the big change in the 1980s was that
domestic culture became intertwined with international
pressures.''

average per capita gdp (gross domestic product) dropped by 1.1
percent during the eighties, unswayed by some temporary recovery
mid-decade when good weather helped production.

of 24 countries which sought to fulfill imf-world bank
prescriptions, only the tiny indian ocean state of mauritius
achieved objectives of stability, structural adjustment, growth
and protection of vulnerable groups.

inconsistencies in the design of adjustment programmes
compounded the visceral effects of declining commodity prices on
african economies.(more/ips)

africa: small farmers crucial to economic recovery, says unicef(2)

africa: small (2)

saps for example, emphasised an expansion in traditional african
exports such as coffee, cocoa and sugar -- which may have
contributed to the decline in world commodity prices.

also, crucial factors -- like water conservation, irrigation,
fertilisers -- were neglected to the detriment of hopes to
modernise african agriculture, charged the unicef report.

most critically, budgets were cut in social service areas
essential to human development and growth. open-door policy
towards foreign investment, in conjunction with enthusiastic
privatisation, left little room for the development of domestic
managers.

''it is clear therefore that the stabilisation-adjustment
strategy was often flawed by contradictory, incomplete and missing
policies, which were incongruent with broadly accepted medium and
long-term development policies in africa,'' the report says,
noting that a world bank review had accepted such inadequacies in
its own programmes.

africa's downward slide however contrasts with the success of
similar saps in asia and latin america.

''one may also argue,'' says giovanni andrea cornia, an editor of
the report and an economist for the unicef child development
centre in italy, ''that you are treating a patient that is weaker
than most. the ability of a country to react to certain conditions
depends on the structure of its economy.''

a significant number of africans -- notably in east africa,
coastal west africa and the sahel -- suffer from land scarcity,
land concentration and poor rural labour conditions.

''the neglect of agriculture was probably the single most serious
policy mistake of the last three decades in africa,'' the report
says. ''(to) put things right, a new agrarian strategy should be
focused on small farmers and women. in countries with inadequate
access to the land, this would entail a land reform policy that
redistributes surplus land ...''

fifteen percent of the continent's agricultural labour force is
currently landless, and 20 percent are classified ''near-
landless''.

in both ''land-poor and land-rich'' states, the unicef proposal
calls for improved access to credit and agricultural inputs such
as improved seeds''. investment would have to increase and prices
for food and cash crops would have to remain stable.

unicef reckons that substantial progress made by africa in the
areas of public health, water supply, basic education and
vocational training could aid the switch to efficient small scale
agriculture and provide the build-up of industrial skills.
(more/ips)

africa: small farmers crucial to economic recovery, says unicef(3-e)

africa: small (3)

the ambitions of the programme depends on massive political
commitment by african governments. to finance such gains,
governments will have to sacrifice expenditure on defence,
interest payments and subsidies to loss-making public enterprises.

cut by half, these expenditures would increase social service
budgets from the current regional average of 22-23 percent to 33-
35 percent.

the report takes pains to point out that africa had not always
been on a downward spiral of economic and social decline.

''we must remember that africa was not the sick man of the world
in the seventies,'' says cornia. ''india was considered that. but
nobody was referring to africa (as they are now) as the crisis
continent and we must keep that in mind.

unicef describes as ''remarkable if uneven'' the improvements
made in social welfare towards the end of the seventies. few
regions in the world had so quickly made gains in improving living
conditions as africa did in the 1960s, unicef says.

''thanks to government commitments to a wide range of basic
services for children, african countries have raised health,
education and other standards to levels that industrialised
nations took more than a century to achieve.''

the continent raised life expectancy and reduced infant mortality
steadily in the 1960s and 1970s, while primary school enrolment
shot up in the 1970s.

''these decades have shown that not everything is wrong in
africa,'' says cornia. ''so the wave of afro-pessimism inundating
the media in the 1980s while understandable is not entirely
justified.'' (end/ips/cd/cg/cpg/92)
From: zld@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Zemen Lebne-Dengel)
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 06:32:45 GMT
Subject: Re: Ethiopia: Correcting a (dis)information
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA