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Planning in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Abdelmalek Ben-Amor  and
Frederick Clairmonte
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Extract

Economic planning is now a commonly acclaimed ideal in the underdeveloped countries, particularly in Africa. Both the theory and the practice were transmitted by the developed countries. Certainly, the advanced economies have very different conceptions of planning, depending on whether they are centrally planned or market-oriented. The former embrace economic planning by ideological predilection; the latter are moving in the direction of ‘indicative’ planning, or at least state intervention on an extended scale. This course was induced by the goad of the crisis-ridden years of the great depression, the exigencies of World War II, the pressures of post-war reconstruction, and the stupendous technological and organisational revolution of our times. In the metropolitan countries—France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom—the idea and practice of economic planning was propagated to the colonies during and after the war.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , December 1965 , pp. 473 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

Page 478 note * The period is not known.

Page 478 note 1 Abandoned.

Page 478 note 2 Capital expenditure programme.

Page 478 note 3 These plans run from mid-year to mid-year; the rest for full calendar years.

Page 480 note 1 Kenya, , Development Plan, 1964–1970 (Nairobi, 1964), p. 34.Google Scholar

Page 480 note 2 Ibid. p. 35.

Page 481 note 1 Ghana Seven Tear Development Plan, 1963/1964–1969/1970 (Accra, 1964), p. 15.Google Scholar

Page 481 note 2 Translated from Rapport sur Ie plan quinquennal de développement économique et social de Ia République du Mali, 1961–1965 (Bamako, n.d.), P. 6.Google Scholar

Page 481 note 3 Kenya, , Development Plan, p. IGoogle Scholar; and Senegal, , Plan quadriennal de développement, 1961–1964 (Dakar, 1961), p. 13.Google Scholar

Page 481 note 4 Egypt, , General Frame of the 5-year Plan for Economic and Social Development, July 1960–June 1965 (Cairo, 1960), p. vi.Google Scholar

Page 481 note 5 Tunisia, , Perspectives décennales de développement, 1962–1971 (Tunis, 1962), P. 8.Google Scholar

Page 481 note 6 Madagascar, , Plan quinquennal, 1964–1968 (Tananarive, 1964), P. 9.Google Scholar

Page 482 note 1 Translated from Le Monde (Paris), 23 01 1965Google Scholar; a speech made to the U.G.T.A. (Union générale des travailleurs algériens).

Page 482 note 2 Ghana Seven year Development Plan, p. 3.

Page 482 note 3 Egypt, , General Frame, p. viii.Google Scholar

Page 485 note 1 For an elaboration of this point see Clairmonte, Frederick F., ‘Agrarian social relations and economic growth’, in Institut de recherches économiques et sociales, Cahiers économiques et sociaux (Lovanium), 12 1963.Google Scholar

Page 485 note 2 Similarly the urban centres, although rapidly growing at the rate of about five per cent per year, are still exiguous. The countries in North Africa, Senegal, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zanzibar, and the Republic of South Africa are the only ones where urban populations exceed so per cent of the total population. Some so per cent of Africa's entire population lives in towns of 20,000 or more inhabitants, whereas the corresponding proportion for the whole world is about one quarter. Even compared with the other two less developed regions, Latin America and Asia, urbanisation levels are still lowest in the African countries. A study of the proportions of the population living in cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants produces the same conclusions. See U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, Workshop on Urbanisation in Africa (Addis Ababa), E/CN.14/170, p. 17.Google Scholar

Page 487 note 1 This table refers to students enrolled for degrees, diplomas and other examinations in institutions of higher (third-level) education of all types, such as universities, higher technical schools, teacher-training colleges, theological schools, etc. But allowance should be made for differences in coverage, and for the varying reliability of population estimates, The figures have been computed from U.N.E.S.C.O. Statistical Yearbook, 1963 (New York, 1964), pp. 210–13Google Scholar and U.N. Demographic Yearbook, 1963 (New York, 1964), pp. 148–51.Google Scholar

Page 489 note 1 Computed from national plans.

Page 489 note 2 Mid-year to mid-year.

Page 489 note 3 The total does not add up to 100 per cent; the difference is made up by l'investissementhumaine—‘human investment’ in self-help projects.

Page 490 note 1 Somali Republic, First Five-year Plan: 1963–1967 (Mogadishu, 1963)Google Scholar. The plan intends to spend some 1,400 million Somali shillings or approximately $200 million. The method of financing this is quite simple and one which many less developed countries would like to emulate. Public savings for the plan period are to be ruled out, since they are small and whatever they are they would be used for private investment. Deficit financing is also ruled out, since Somalia's currency ‘requires i oo per cent backing’, is ‘one of the most stable currencies in the world’ and safe limits to deficit financing are regarded as ‘very small’. Since there are no domestic resources for the plan, it is to be financed almost completely by external assistance from ‘friendly countries’. Although no estimate of Somalia's G.D.P. is available, if it is assumed that the per capita income is about $40 to $50, and population about 2 to 2·5 million, this would give an annual G.D.P. for Somalia of between $80 m. and $100 m. Annual foreign assistance for public expenditure of $25 m. to $30 m. would then come to some 25 to 30 per cent of the present national income. In comparison it may be said that if India were to receive aid on this scale the annual sum might be as high as $5—6,000 m. These are all orders of magnitude, merely intended to show that the Somali plan is par excellence a public plan, foreign-financed, and with little or no national saving. The bulk of this foreign assistance is to be used for creating projects under the control of the public sector.

Page 491 note 1 Computed from national plan data (estimates only for Tunisia, Niger, and Somalia).

Page 491 note 2 Mid-year to mid-year.

Page 493 note 1 Sources: national development plans and U.N.E.C.A. documents.

Page 493 note 2 Mid-year to mid-year.

Page 495 note 1 Translated from Rapport généal sur l'exécution du premier plan quinquennal jusqu' au 30 juin 1963 (Yaoundé, 1964), p. 8.Google Scholar

Page 496 note 1 U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, Outlines and Selected lndicators of African Development Plans (Addis Ababa), E/CN.14/336, I4 01 1965, p. ix.Google Scholar

Page 497 note 1 Union douaniére et économique de l'Afrique centrale: Cameroun, Congo (Brazzaville), Chad Central African Republic, and Gabon.