Self- reliance became a fashionable doctrine in the 1960s at the dawn of independence for African countries. Its popularity reflected the socio-economic, political and strategic conditions then prevalent in the African countries. Fifty years later there is a renewal of interest in the concept. But the underlying objective conditions have changed radically, often beyond recognition from the situation that prevailed half a century ago. What did self-reliance mean then and how should it be interpreted now?

Fifty years ago, most African economies, especially in Eastern and Southern Africa, were characterized by extensive foreign ownership and control of national resources. The dominant development theories emphasized rapid industrialization and transformation of the economy through planning and extensive state control of the economy. Self-reliance was thus interpreted to mean rapid transfer of resources from foreign to African and state control. The means adopted to achieve this objective included nationalization of enterprises and Africanisation of economies as in East African countries although the mix between state ownership and private African enterprise varied a good deal from one country to another.  In some countries as in Uganda during the Amin regime, more drastic measures were employed such as the expropriation of assets and expulsion of immigrant communities.

In the domain of foreign and strategtic policy, the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union dominated international affairs. African countries often split between the pro-Soviet and pro-Western camps. At the same time there was a powerful sentiment in favour of pan-Africanism and closer economic and political relations among African and developing countries. This found expression in movements for continental political unity and non-alignment to either bloc. Self-reliance in foreign affairs was thus interpreted to mean non-alignment and closer economic and political cooperation among African and developing countries. The latter movement also referred as collective self-reliance found expression closer home in initiatives such as the East African Common Market and calls for East African Federation.

Over the last fifty years, there have major changes in economic and political spheres. In economic policy, there has been a shift away from central planning, key role of the state in the ownership and management of the economy and the use of tariffs and capital controls, in favour of deregulation, privatization and liberalization of trade and capital controls. In the political domain, there has been the end of the Cold War, the collapse of communism, the dominance in global affairs of the United States and to a lesser extent the European Union, and the emergence recently of a few developing countries like China, India and Brazil as important global players. The changes in economic policy have spurred a powerful drive towards globalization resulting in massive increases in trade, foreign investment, flows of capital, technology and information, international migration, and imitation of western consumption patterns among the developing country elites.

What are the implications of these changes for self-reliance? What can self-reliance be interpreted to mean as we enter the second decade of the 21st Century? Despite the sweeping globalization of recent decades, self-reliance both at national and collective levels has a significant role to play in national and global policies. At the national level, self-reliance must be interpreted to mean enhancing capacity and effectiveness to deal with the country’s central socio-economic and political problems. These comprise elimination of poverty and unemployment, attainment of social security for the vulnerable and marginal groups and the creation of institutions to ensure guarantee of fundamental human rights for all, especially women and minorities.

Capacity to solve critical economic and social problems must be enhanced through an efficient and responsive public sector, a thriving civil society, including free media, and a dynamic private sector. These need to be buttressed by institutions and individuals capable of independent thought, dedicated to seeking local and national solutions to the abiding problems listed above. High quality education and research capability, especially in sciences and technology, are central to achieving self-reliance to surmount the critical challenge of achieving decent living standards on a universal and sustainable basis. Effective capacity and institutions should also lead to a flowering of culture and arts that is reflective of local reality rather than being a pale imitation of the trends abroad.

Paradoxically in an age of heightening globalization and growing differentiation among developing countries, the notion of collective self-reliance is assuming greater importance than ever before. First the rapid economic growth achieved by emerging economies, especially the Asian giants, has raised the demand and prices of primary products, thus benefiting a wide range of developing countries still dependent heavily on exports of agricultural and mineral products. Secondly, the flows of trade, investment, aid and technology among developing countries have greatly accelerated. The growing mutual dependence among rapidly growing developing countries can become a powerful engine for reducing poverty and generating productive employment. Thirdly, such a pattern of growth is likely to give rise to products and technology more suitable for the needs of developing countries than similar growth impulse emanating from rich countries. Thus increased trade among developing countries is making available to the ordinary people cheaper and more appropriate goods and services from other developing countries. A negative impact of this is the likely weakening or even destruction of some of the early stage industries in less advanced developing countries. This requires effective policies of protection of vital industries in such countries.

What then are the areas where developing countries as a whole or groups of them can cooperate to promote their joint interests? Without being exhaustive, we highlight three priority areas: joint negotiations with industrialized countries, technology and the protection of the environment. There are numerous issues on the global agenda where joint negotiations by developing countries can ensure a better outcome for them. These include increased flows and better terms of aid, trade liberalization, climate change, intellectual copyright, improved global governance and better representation of developing countries in key international forums such as the UN Security Council, the IMF and the World Bank. It is recognized that there are conflicting interests among groups of developing countries on some of these issues, but in all such cases, the interests of the least developed countries should take priority.

Technology is another area of cooperation with a massive potential for mutual gains  Already some technological innovations of recent years have conferred huge benefits to the masses in the Third World countries. These include mobile phones, improved seed varieties and technologies for social interaction and cheap and quick means of information dissemination. In the future we can expect more of such innovations to come from developing countries themselves. M-Pesa, invented in Kenya, is spreading to other developing countries as a device for payments, savings and other banking transactions. $1000 cars, $100 computers and $50 refrigerators have already been invented. In the coming years, one can expect numerous innovations in such fields as transportation, housing, health care, education, energy generation and environmental protection. The basic reason for this is that growing prosperity and increasing purchasing power of low income groups will create huge markets for such goods and services.

Finally, the need to protect the environment offers a fruitful area of cooperation among developing countries. Climate change with its attendant dangers of global warming, increasing frequency of floods, droughts, tempests, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are becoming a familiar phenomenon in different parts of the world. Destruction and degradation of natural resources and the extinction of species are gathering pace. It has been estimated that developing countries stand to lose most from such changes, to such an extent that some countries such as several island states risk being wiped off from the face of the earth. A reversal of these processes will require major changes in demography, patterns of consumption and economic growth and indeed in our entire life styles.

A major question for the world community in the coming years will be how these burdens of adjustment must be shared between different groups of countries and peoples. It is the industrialized countries that bear primary responsibility for global warming through their emissions over centuries of gases accumulated in the atmosphere. Furthermore, because of their high incomes they are better able to make the sacrifices that will be necessary. The high income groups in the developing countries also cannot shirk their responsibility. This therefore offers a complex and immensely important field for collective self-reliance not only among developing countries but indeed on the global and planetary level. Global self-reliance must be interpreted as the need to protect and preserve natural resources and prevent the destruction of other species from the greed of humankind-an ethical and technological challenge of gigantic proportions.                        

By Dharam Ghai

Dharam is a former Director, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, ILO World Employment Programme Research and of Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi.
Dharam is currently doing research on children in Africa and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the African Child Policy Forum based in Addis Ababa. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .