Finance and debt

The inability of world leaders to face up to the root causes or policy contradictions of a food crisis is nothing new, but the resultant crisis of faith in neoliberal economic orthodoxy is a sign that the world direction is changing course, writes Adam Parsons.

A collection of facts and further resources about economic development in Africa, including organisations, reports and articles.

As neoliberal policies continue to define the rules of the world economy, great signs of change are being witnessed in many progressive governments of Latin America that are rejecting the Washington Consensus in favour of democratic and people-oriented models of development based on greater regional integration, cooperation and economic justice.

Levels of international aid have been criticised as seriously insufficient for over 50 years, debt cancellation programs have failed to reach most developing countries, and the Millennium Development Goal for halving poverty will not be met by 2015. Without a fundamental restructuring of global economic priorities, the needs of the majority world will continue to be overshadowed by commercial interests.

After decades of famine, grinding poverty, colossal debts and enormous slum-growth, Africa is indisputably the worst casualty of economic globalization. As the region takes the further brunt of man-made climate change, the rich nations hold a moral responsibility to reorder economic priorities and coordinate a massive transfer of resources to the impoverished continent.

Since the imposition of free market policies in the 1980s, globalization has come to represent an ideological battle between those who favor economic growth and deregulation through the growing power of multinational corporations, versus those who prefer a more sustainable and democratic approach to international development, socio-economic justice, and the securing of basic human rights and needs.

Soaring capital flows, a debt-based consumer culture and unbalanced trade between countries all contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The question now is whether governments follow a 'business as usual' model based on self-interest and inequality, or one that promotes equitable development based on moral and social principles.