Evaluation of regional development effects in Africa

united nations

african institute for economic development _{and pl}ANTING

dak a r.

sSW%

idep/.3t/cs/

2461 -28

IDAP SEMINAR ON REGIONALISATION OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

AND REGIONAL PL.ANWT"T0 IN AFRICA

(ibadan,

Nigeria: 16th April ^- 12th May

1973)

EVALUATION OF REGIONAL DEVELOP, ENT EFFECTS IN AFRICA.

By:

Professor M. DOVIPAR

Views expressed are those of the Author.

arcii, 1977.

EVALUATION OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS IN AFRICA

Theory & Organisation:

We will attempt, Atla-Mills and myself, to evaluate the "theories" under¬

lying specific actions in the field of regional development in the African countries studied.

To start,

I

(ï)

^{I'll first take as} given the conclusion arrived at with respect to

the historical _emergence of regional inequalities in Africa: that the type

of inequalities with which we are dealing is the product of the colonial integration of African societies in the capitalist market. This means that

these inequalities resulted, given the different modes of social organisa¬

tion of production that existed before the capitalist penetration, from

the type of exchange in which these societies ^were engaged, an exchange that

could be explained only on the basis of capitalist production relations.

In a word, these inequalities resulted thanks to the price structure that

dominates directly or indirectly the relations between these societies and the advanced capitalist economies and determines the distribution of the social product of these societies between them and the capitalist centres.

(2)

I'll take as given, secondly, the findings of yesterday's presentations and discussions. Such findings could be summerised as follows:

- first, in the African countries studied, the general pattern of growth

efforts

(and

I intentionally talk about growth and not

development)

^{has, in}

the main, an import substitut:!on nature. With slight difference, concerning

Ghana and North Nigeria, where processing industries are relatively more

emphasised.

second, within this general pattern of growth efforts, we have, from the regional viewpoint, a policy

(sometimes

consistent and sometimes of à piecemeal

nature)

of growth poles or centres creation, putting the word

"centre" between brackets, for we still have to see whether they represent

t. •

centres or not.

third, that these poles happened to be the ones inherited from the colonial

era, except, of course, in the cases where new natural resources, like oil, were not exploited before political independence. The result on a regional level was the reproduction of the colonial structure, on a more

or less quantitatively larger scale.

Taken this as given, I'll try in what follows:

first to comment, rapidly, the general pattern of growth efforts, for it

has a direct implication on the nature of the created poles,

to see, in a second stage, and less rapidly, the space analysis that

underlies the efforts under taken in the post-independence period.

(4)

As for the import-substitution pattern, it does mean, as we oil know,

to proceed by stages, starting by producing for the already

existed demand

of imported

(mainly)

consumption goods.

This means that we take as given the consumption pattern

dictated by the

pattern of the distribution of income within the framework

that created and

perpetuates underdevelopment. It is the pattern of consumption

imposed

by the capitalist relations of production. Hence, a

continuity in the

dependence, from the viewpoint of the consumption pattern.

These import-substitution industries demand from abroad:

direct current inputs, very oftenly semi

manufactured products, and

basic production goods which implies dependence upon

the capitalist

centres from the

technological viewpoint.

In all, this means

that, along with the dependence on the capitalist could

market with

respect to exports, even more dependence, through the establish¬

ment of these

import-substituting industries, be it for the production of

consumption

goods (traditional or modern) or traditional production goods.

This means at the same

time that the linkage effects of these industries

realises themselves

outside the country, somewhere In a capitalist centre.

The whole economy

is still dependent within the capitalist market, and the

drain of the most

important part of its economic surplus still takes place by-t^u?

capitalist centre.

But this happens for the different parts of the economy

in different manners.

- The implication

of such pattern is that the centres of development do exist

outside the

dependent economy

-

And what is meant, in the post-political-

independence

period, to be poles of grswth are mere "stops" on the way

towards the real

centre that exists in the advanced capitalist economy.

And for these

"stops"

or

towns, the function is well defined: they are not

to provide

the countryside with what real centres provide agriculture even

in the

capitalist economies. They live on the appropriation of a part

(quantitatively dependent on the bargaining power with international capital

of the surplus

created in primary production and in the same existing

industries, and

facilitate, not always without frictions, the drain of the

rest of the surplus

towards the capitalist centre. /Within the boundaries

of these town live

the dominating social class or strata or the so-called

elite, with

their mode of life, pattern of consumption, ideals, etc.._j7

Ill

(5)

Coming now

to the analysis underlying the regional "development" efforts

we meet a certain space

analysis that finds its origin in the analytical

efforts carried out in the

Western capitalist countries in the after Second

World War period, when

regional inequalities were flagrantly showing them¬

selves in these countries.

These inequalities called not only for regional

development

policies /"aménagement des territories/7 but also for a host

of space analyses,

that

came

to make afterwards a part of the theoretical

exportation

towards the underdeveloped countries.

- The critique of one

of these analyses, the pole growth analysis will be.

made by my collègue

Atta-Mills. I'll limit myself to the task of explici-

ting the

assumptions -underlying those space analyses to see to what extent

they abstract

from the

very

essence of the phenomenon they mean to ^.

investigate.

(a) First,

we

take the significance of the space. In their view, space is a mere

geographical distance, to be measured by the transport cost. "It will be

admitted, according

to Tinbergeh and others

^,

that the most important

aspect of space

in economic matters is the existence of transportation.

Therefore, we

think that the best economic measure of space must be based

on the level of

transportation costs for a No.of commodities

/L.

^Mennes,

J. Tinbergen & J. Waardenburg, The Element of Space in Develop-

ment Planning,

North-Holland Publishing Company, Amesterdam,.1969, p. 2_J.

This might be a

geographical definition of space, but in Economics, a

science that deals with

social relations occuring through the intermediary of

'• ' ' t ■' *'* .• '^.

material things, space

cannot be but the geographical distribution of production

relations. It is the

location

over

the terretories of the society of these

production

relations.

Space can be distinguished in finding out the type of production relations

(that

characterises the social organisation of

production)

that dominate over it

in finding whether their class subordination or not. It can be distinguished in finding out, through production relations, how a certain social

organisation of

production is subordinated to another. It can be distinguished in finding out through production relations, how an ensemble of regions is subordinated to

a dominant ec'onomy

(foreign).

Seen in this way, a regional analysis means an analysis

- of the social organisation of production in the region.

- of the degree of its integration to the market.

- to find out the class-structure in the region which gives it its specifity

within the ensemble: the subordinated and depressed classes and strata ^...

their live conditions, their mobility etc..

- all this for a region in its relation to other regions and to the

metropoli

tan centre. To find out whether this relation is direct or indirect through another region ^- whether it is established through selling its

commodities

(and

their

nature)

^or through buying .. or through

both of

them .. and the terms of trade ^... and so on. To find out which of the

classes of the region is in contradiction or inconcilliation

with the

metropolitan centre etc.

Accordingly, a region will be defined, given its

national endowment,

according to the specifity of its social organisation of

production, and in

underdeveloped society, according to the

specifity of its subordination to

capital, the international capital, and consequently, the

role it plays in the

production and the mobilisation of a certain type of surplus

towards the

metropolitan centre.

If they fail to see space as the territorial location of production relations

(dominant

and dominating

ones),

it is no wonder that the outcome of their

analysis is that efforts will be limited to what they call "physical planning".

b)

However, their analysis assume, implicitly, the price structure dominating

the capitalist market, that is the price structure through which the effects of

the growth poles are effectuated... They assume then, the existence of the price structure which produced underdevelopment for the African societies,

which makes it difficult if not impossible to conceive the effectiveness of a regional planning that aims at the elimination of regional inequalities within

the cadre of such a price structure.

c)

Furthermore, this space analysis abstracts from the socio-political nature

of the State, that is, fçom the class nature of the State, a nature which

determines the main choices of the development pattern be it on a national or regional level.

Hence a superficial way of posing the problem of organisation for

(national

as well as

regional),for

they cannot be separated. This problem is usually put by them in such teims:

- how far administrative decisions will be centralised or

depentralised.

F

- what additional administrative organism to create and where to put it.

- what sort of personnel we need for it and how to form them and so on.

If the socio-political nature of the State is introduced: - 1st, the problem of regional inequalities will be posed differently according to the

different nature of the State. If the State is capitalist or petit

bourgeois

its attitude towards these inequalities will be different from that of State

that belong to the masses of direct producers, in agriculture and in industry.

Without knowing the nature of the State ^we can hardly understand the reproduction of the colonial structure of regional inequalities in all the African countries dealt within this Seminar.

- if the socio-political nature of the S • e is introduced, the problem of organisation necessary for planning

(national

^and

regional)

^can be put in

its appropriate manner, as that of the guarantee of the participation of

j the masses of direct producers, in the planning process through their effective control of the means of production. The critique of Atta-Mills

of one specific sort of these space analyses will add further evidence to

the irrelevance of these analyses to an underdeveloped situations.