Opinion
Are Poor Countries Denied Chance to Succeed?
Instead, they were given so-called “appropriate technologies”. Juma said instead of a modern water supply with sewers, they were told to dig wells. Instead of building modern electric grids, they were given fuel efficient stoves. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many doubted African nations had the capability to distribute and administer antiretroviral drugs. As a result, they said the drugs could not be effective. African nations proved them wrong.
“Again that was another example of pessimism. Of saying there’s really very little you can do for these countries because they don’t have the infrastructure. The same infrastructure they had been denied from building in the first place,” said Juma. In the 20th Century, many had thought Ghana had the potential to become an economic powerhouse; that it would become what South Korea is today.
Juma said, “It’s very interesting you bring up the case of Ghana because Ghana at independence got a foreign economic adviser, a Nobel Laureate in economics, Arthur Lewis. He was one of the critics of Schumpeter, who did not believe that a country like Ghana was capable of transforming itself technologically, whereas South Korea was able to do that. At that time, there wasn’t a big difference between South Korea and Ghana.”
Juma recommends giving priority to innovation, technical and engineering fields, transformative infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The Harvard professor is working on a new book containing his ideas. It has the tentative title of How Economies Succeed: Innovation and the Wealth of Nations. It’s due out in 2015.
Copyright Voice of America 2014
