Routledge Economic Change Governance and Natural Resource Wealth: The Political Economy of Change in Southern Africa

Product Description This volume analyzes the ways in which natural resource wealth has shaped authoritarian political regimes and statist economic systems in the countries of southern Africa in the post-colonial period. It consists of five essays. The first sets out the historical framework and emergence of natural resources as the crucial driver of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Three essays, drawing on in-country research, focus on Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They show how this explains the economic evolution of those countries - in particular, the impacts of economic and institutional changes on the bulk of the population, the rural poor. The final essay explores the nature of the changes and their neoliberal economic context, and the ways in which their harmful consequences might be relieved. Review 'This book is a call to arms for non-governmental organizations to act as watchdogs on government and advocates of policy reform...A welcome and deep analysis' -- Professor PHIL O'KEEFE, Reader, University of Northumbria at Newcastle and Director, ETC UK :Ltd From the Inside Flap 'The essays in this book are both insightful and troubling. They are insightful because they take a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding the complex interaction between economic and political actors, both national and international, as resource-based countries undergo structural change. They are troubling because they bring into the open numerous sensitive issues regarding power, privilege, systems of governance, corruption and, above all, the impact of these dynamics on the rural poor' From the Foreword by POUL NIELSON, Commissioner for Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid, European Commission As the debate regarding the benefits and costs of globalization evolves, Economic Change, Governance and Natural Resource Wealth confronts the stark realities of how economic and political reforms in southern Africa have affected the poor and the environment. It further examines the crucial role of international development and business communities in creating effective institutions for long-term, sustainable prosperity and social vitality. The analysis and recommendations presented in this book will be immensely valuable to southern Africa specialists as well as to professionals in development, policy-makers, economists and academics interested in natural resource management elsewhere in the developing world. About the Author David Reed is director of WWWF-International's Macroeconomics Program Office located in Washington, DC. He received his PhD in development economics from the Institut Universitaire d'Etudes du Development, University of Geneva. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Over the past decade the European Commission has supported WWF's efforts to analyze the impact of structural reforms on the environment of developing countries. More recently, the Commission joined six other development agencies in trying to influence the implementation of structural reform programmes so as to increase the attention given by governments and the Bretton Woods institutions to the environmental impacts in countries of southern Africa that rely heavily on natural resource wealth. This research and advocacy program was carried out by WWF's Macroeconomics Program Office with local partners in coun-tries of the region. This endeavor to influence the implementation of the economic reform process encountered unanticipated challenges. Difficulties arose not from particular shortcomings of project partners but rather from the very character of the systems of governance and the economic arrangements that had evolved in those resource-rich countries following independence. The essays presented in this publication explore the complex dynamics of how governments in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe sought to construct egalitarian societies using those countries' diverse natural resource wealth. They then go on to explore h