25 May 2009
African nations which expand their political freedoms also reduce poverty, according to a major new study published today.
In a survey of selected countries across the continent, the study also finds that between 2000 and 2008, poverty decreased in Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia but grew in Benin, Botswana, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe.
The study was carried out by the Afrobarometer Network, a coalition of research institutions from Benin, Ghana and South Africa, working with partners in the countries surveyed.
In a briefing paper entitled "Poverty Reduction, Economic Growth and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa," the network released findings based on an index of what it calls "lived poverty" - poverty as judged by what basic necessities respondents to a survey have had to do without.
It found that in every country, survey respondents most commonly reported a shortage of cash income, followed by shortages of medical care, food, clean water and cooking fuel.
Calculating changes in 19 individual countries over time, it compared respondents' experiences in accessing water, food and medical treatment. Overall, poverty dropped, the study found, but there were wide variations between countries.
"Lived poverty remains extensive," the study concluded. "While most Afrobarometer countries have managed to reduce... [it], others have allowed it to increase."
Narrowing its calculations to a 10-country survey, the study said the largest reductions in poverty between 2000 and 2008 had occurred in Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Ghana, Lesotho and Malawi.
And the study said although Africa's wealthiest countries tended to have lower levels of lived poverty, this did not always apply. Rural Africans experienced more poverty than did urban communities, while in South Africa blacks experienced poverty at three times the rate of whites.
While differences between countries in national wealth and economic growth helped explain the findings, it added, "lived poverty is strongly related to... measures of political freedom, and changes in poverty are related to changes in freedom...
"The more a country expanded political liberties and political rights in a given period, the more it reduced poverty during the same period.
"As political freedom has increased in Zambia and Ghana between 1999 and 2008, levels of poverty have come down steadily. On the other hand, as political freedom decreased in Zimbabwe, Senegal and Madagascar, lived poverty has steadily increased."
Read the full briefing paper [PDF]>>
Read the Afrobarometer press release>>
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Allafrica.com may be up to something here, as usual, if it means "more wealth" for the few and perhaps larger gaps between the mega-rich and the mega-poor of the world. Unless Zuma does something about it pronto, to redeem the land issue, South Africans may end up like Zimbabweans of recent. Even the 4th US President - James Madison, also a primary framer of the US Constitution, wrote 'Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and conflict; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives… [Read Full Text]
It makes sense that political freedom does mean or brings more wealth to the country that has attained that position. Freedom must be cherished by all and it has to come from within. Countries like Zimbabwe that have had authoritarian rule under mugabe scared local investors and there was flight of capital and foreign currency. But, just because a country is liberating it's markets does not mean that money should not be spent on education, helping native farmers and selling fertilizer at below market values to local native farmers. Malawi ignored market forces and gave fertilizers and other inputs to… [Read Full Text]
" It makes sense that political freedom does mean or brings more wealth to the country that has attained that position. .."
Tell us about that "sense". [One may propose that the USA and UK - and indeed the countries of Europe - "bring more wealth" into their countries through worldwide age-old network of plunder of resources. 'Political freedoms' bringing wealth? (Threaten to) Cut off the west's access to Africa's resources and there will be war - immediate, bloody, desperate, vicious, sustained. Pretext? As in the case of Iraq, perhaps imagined WMDs will exist in all… [Read Full Text]
Ckokora, you are forgetting that black Zimbabweans are the ones who have left in high numbers than whites. This is mainly because of lack of Political Freedoms in Zimbabwe. Most Zimbabweans abroad wanted to retire to Zimbabwe, but the control policies of Mugabe has discouraged a whole generation that now will never set foot in Zimbabwe. That has meant no foreign currency in Zimbabwe.
Forced to hand over their foreign currency, most Zimbabweans hide it and then left the country. Look at Zambia or Mozambique and see what political freedoms have brought to those nations. Business in Zimbabwe has mainly… [Read Full Text]
" .. black Zimbabweans are the ones who have left in high numbers than whites. "
You may play the numbers game if you wish. If 100,000 travel out of Zimbabwe, we still have millions in Zimbabwe. Now if 10,000 rhodies are kicked out of the ancestral lands of maZimbabwe, how many are left?
[Hint: You may not find that many rhodies there, glory to the great Mbuya.]
.
" .. This is mainly because of lack of Political Freedoms in Zimbabwe .."
Talking of social migration: Most people emigrate - or move to other… [Read Full Text]
Phiri, if you are truly a blackman, I would say that you have been brainwashed, otherwise, I would assume that you must be a white farm-owner from Zimbabwe for whom the Western European countries, UK in particular, are supporting to teach Africans a lesson that they dare not disobey the master. As in everywhere, any black leader, (Mugabe for example) that dares to demand justice for his people must be tarnished with appelations like "dictator" even though his people keep voting him back into office, time and time again. Lest we forget the popularly elected PM Patrice Lumumba and his… [Read Full Text]
Karpara, I have been called all kinds of things, but I'm as black as native Zimbabwean as any one can be. We should not shift the blame always on he western world. Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been a master of that. The result has been a Zimbabwe that is much poorer, cholera, politically unstable, fleeing of middle/upper class, educated Zimbabweans. Life span for an average Zimbabwe once in the 60's now in the late 3o's. Political freedoms allows artists, pan-africanist, entrepeneur etc to express themselves, than a rigid mugabe type of politics.
See all comments (10).
More Political Freedom Brings More Wealth
Mhh.
And of course the foreign whites define what "political freedom" means. And by design, it can't exist in countries not subordinated to whites, right?
[And the lion would not define "being nice" to include the act oif the antelope kicking at the lion.]
What do these rhodies, their handlers and their native boys mean by "political freedom" anyway?
[ For instance, does it exist in the USA?]
.
"Brings More Wealth"?
Cunning propaganda. "Brings" from where?
Well. Does that statement mean the same as "creates more wealth"?
"freedom". Until the western… [Read Full Text]