Presently, over half of the world refugees are found in Africa. Once conflict is over, in many countries, the costs associated with the massive and indiscriminate use of anti-personal land mines is phenomenal. According to the International Red Cross, land mines kill 800 people each month, with thousands being severely maimed. In the interest of economic and social progress, the use of public resources must emphasize efficiency and equity. Broad reviews of government expenditure are needed to help governments restructure and make tough choices about the allocation and reallocation of their public expenditures.
Governments incur huge opportunity costs when resources are allocated to the military.
Spending extremely scarce capital on defense involves substantial sacrifice of other economic opportunities for growth and development. In Africa, governments are channelling far too many resources to the military and countries are losing their ability to bear the costs of defense. Defense spending is a major user of a country's scarce resources, crowds out valuable civil investment, and renders adverse effects on an economy's development and growth potential. Military spending as a percentage of the combined education and health expenditures increased from 27 to 43 percent during 1980 and the early 1990s, respectively, for Africa as a whole. In contrast, it declined for both the developing and the industrial countries during the same comparable period.