Globalisation and Africa Crisis of Development in the 21st Century

Abstract

It is paradoxical that Africa is the first habit of man but has evolved today as the last to be made truly habitable. There is the disconcerting fact that Africa harbours overwhelming majority of the least developed countries of the world which UN regards as the “Poorest. In spite of its rich resources-endowment, a disproportion number of people in the population of Africa are known to be under-nourished and under-privileged. It has been suggested that the current crisis of development in Africa cannot be properly understood if perceived merely as internal remote. Therefore, the paper examines the crisis of development in Africa with specific attention to “21st century using various indicators of socio-economic and political as prominence for assessment .The impact of globalization on Africa continent was also given prominence consideration. Besides, a review of the existing status of the continent on the global development spectrum is made in order to visualize the way forward. It was discovered that, the rising profile of Africa in the world economy was however suddenly truncated through its contact with the outside world. The preceding result of the research also, revealed that, the law of comparative advantage and economies of scale work strongly against Africa in achieving developmental goals in the 21st century. The paper then, suggests that much of the conventional wisdom regarding on how best to address African development and poverty is not only misguided but often harmful by certain policies. Hence, other policy issues were recommended which constitute imperative pre-requisite for the attainment of development in the continent of Africa.