The consequences of structural adjustment and debt for desertification and food security in Africa--a literture review and discussion.

• Author: Solomon, Ayele

Abstract

Africa is facing declining per capita agricultural output. Food imports to Sub-Saharan Africa rose from US$1.1 billion in 1970 to US$ 5.3 billion in 1985 contributing to raising external debt from US$5.4 billion to US$58.8 billion during the same time period. In 1998, external debt stood at US$230 billion. Since the 1980's global recession and introduction of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS), Africa's debt burden has grown from 30% of GNP to currently over a 100%.

The finks between the supra-national/national economic policies, and the natural resource base of implementing countries have not sufficiently been made in past policy formulation. TMs paper discusses the possible effects of higher scale macro-economic policies on land use decisions (on the farm) that ultimately affect land degradation and desertification. To what extent macro-economic policy, namely SAPS, have been complimentary to the goals of Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) National Action Programmes are explored.

Various long and short-term scenarios of the micro level effects of SAPS and their resultant debt are discussed. Effects on terms of trade, yields, and on farmers' decisions on whether to sustainable intensifying or extensifying land-use are presented within an overall framework of assessing multiple scale effects of economic policy on land degradation and desertification. The paper argues that multidisciplinary and multi-scale land degradation problems should be addressed through inter-institutional cooperation and by systematically combining natural and social science in research and policy formulation to tackle land degradation leading

desertification in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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PROBLEM

Africa is facing declining per capita agricultural output (Delgado and Mellor, 1984). As demand for food increases, so does demand for land. This has lead to declining follow periods and increased monocropping (ICIHI, 1986). Pastoral livestock agriculture has suffered from the combination of denuded rangeland and crowding out from native land as population growth and other factors have caused marginal lands to come under cultivation (Dixon et al 1989). All these factors can contribute to desertification.

Desertification is defined by the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. The Latin root of 'degradation' is 'reduced to a lower rank'. So land degradation (I) refers to the reduction in the rank (or quality) of a parcel of land; so actual or potential use of that land is reduced. It affects 70 percent (3.6 billion hectares) of the 5.2 billion hectares of drylands areas (UN Interim Secretary for the CCD, 1998), or a quarter of the global land area of 13.07 billion hectares (FAO, 1990). More than half of the countries with a low Human Development Index-HDI (II) are the most vulnerable to desertification, and the poorest people within them are the most affected (UNDP, 1995). A disproportionate number of these countries lie in Africa, where over a billion hectares, or 73 percent of its drylands, are affected by desertification (UN Interim Secretary for the CCD, 1998).

To deal with the impeding food security problems and the occurrence of desertification throughout the world, and especially in Africa, the CCD (III) was adopted on June 17, 1994 and has been ratified, accepted, or acceded by 174 nations to date. The CCD is a legally binding document that includes concrete National Action Plans (NAP-Appendix 10 of the Convention) which must be based on local-level input and participation, and involve all levels of government and civic institutions in determining sustainable land use strategies. According to the Convention, NAPS must seek to eradicate poverty in their effort to combat desertification by encouraging alternative livelihoods that are not highly reliant on primary agricultural production. The treaty stresses the importance of international, regional, sub-regional, and inter-governmental cooperation.

The links between the supra-national and national economic policies, and the natural environment of implementing countries have not been made sufficiently. The most influential macro-economic policies in Africa during the 1980's and 1990's originated from the World Bank. Collective they were labeled Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS). They have had mixed results in achieving higher growth and a better standard of living for Africans. Various scenarios on how SAPS, and foreign debts have had direct or in-direct effects on desertification are discussed in this paper. To what extent macro-economic policy, namely SAPS and high debt burden, have been complimentary to the aims of CCD NAPS are explored.

BACKGROUND

THE COLONIAL PERIOD

A discussion on current land use practices cannot over-look the colonial period's influence in shaping the political and ecological economy of Africa. Blaikie and Brookfield (1987: pp. 106) state: "It seems fairly clear that the massive disruptions of society brought about under colonialism in Africa must bear the major share of any explanation of deteriorating quality of land management." The breakdown of social structures and crowding out of humans and animal, and the exploitation of natural resources is documented in various literature (for example see Polanyi, 1944; Darkoh, 1980).

Blaikie and Brookfield (1987: pp. 106) state, "There is little doubt that there has been a large increase in degradation during and since the colonial period." They cite three main causes of degradation associated with colonialism: the loss of land, labor extraction, and the commercialization of agriculture that began during the colonial era. Throughout much of Africa colonialism took the best lands and geared them towards the production of cash crops-which is generally not inter or relay cropped (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987).

In the drylands the main crops were groundnuts, cotton and tobacco. In more temperate regions of East Africa, large tea and coffee plantations are a feature of the landscape. Today the export of commercial crops is a feature of African economies south of the Sahara. What is the extent of is this historical export bias today, and how does it affect the level of desertification? The answer is a function of many variables and will vary from country and region, but in many cases national governments have tended to neglect investment on staple food crops in favor of cash crops.

INDEPENDENCE TO PRESENT

After the independence of many African nations in the 1960's the continent was a net exporter of food, but the initial optimism began to fade as undemocratic and dogmatic regimes emerged during the cold war. Development scheme of various political origins failed to bring the post colonial dream of growth and self-sufficiency. Led by the Berg report, the World Bank attributed Africa's problems on ineffective domestic policies that featured over-valued exchange rates, heavy taxation, and subsidized state industries (World Bank, 1981). Africa nations put the blame on the external policies of North countries.

Beginning in the early 1980's, global macro-economic policy centered around free trade and SAPS as a way to rid African economies of distortions and inefficiency. SAPS had mixed results, but were largely inaccurate when predicting that economic growth would follow shortly after adjustment. Eicher and Staatz (1998: pp. 518) describe the World Bank's own assessment as follows.

"Africa's structural adjustment experience has humbled the World Bank. The juxtaposition of the dreams of the Berg report and the reality of Africa's development experience in the 1980's and 1990's helps explain why the World Bank recently declared that effective institutions matter as much as sensible policies in development (World Bank, 1997 cited in ibid). The second round of structural adjustment lending is now being broadened to include institutional reform, rebuilding of human capital, fiscal decentralization and broader participation of civil society in the economy".

The inclusion of civil society and the coordination of various institutions is also advocated by the CCD, and follows a trend of multi-dimensional, or holistic, engagement of problems. The assumption being that problems cross disciplines and institutions, and therefore solutions that forge a path to growth and development should do the same. If coordination is not in place, one policy measures may actively work to negate the long term goals of another well-intentioned policy measure. The ineffectuality of SAPS from not considering non-economic factors and institutions has been recognized, so what effects have SAPS had on environmental concerns such as desertification?

Food imports to sub-Saharan Africa rose from US$ 1.1 billion in 1970 to US$5.3 billion in 1985 (McNamara, 1985) helping to raise external debt from US$ 5.4 billion to US$58.8 billion during the same time period (Biswas, 1986). Since the time of the global recession of 1981-82, and the introduction of SAPS, Sub-Saharan Africa's debt burden has grown just 30% of GNP to over 100% (excluding South Africa). Seventy-five percent of the work force in Sub-Saharan Africa are employed in agriculture thus exportable cash crops is the principal means by which these nations are able to repay the debt. (A discussion on debt will follow later in the paper). In 1998, external debt for Sub-Saharan Africa stood at over US$230 billion. (World Bank, 2000).

(UNICEF, 1999)

It should be foreseeable that macro-economic decision made by a national ministry of finance, or the World Bank can have effects on the micro-scale (affecting the decision of one farmer). Effects of macro policy, in this case higher debt, may cause emphasis on the production of cash crops for export. Many similar actions can be aggregated by adding all the farmers that made a...