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SOCIAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

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Date Issued:
2004
Abstract/Description:
For the past thirty years Africa has produced a more noticeably inferior reserve of human capital than other developing regions. This is puzzling because at the inception of independence, the future of Africa looked promising. However, during the 1970s both the political and economic situation in Africa began to deteriorate, and since 1980, the aggregate per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa has declined at almost one percent per fiscal year. Thirty-two countries are poorer now than they were twenty years ago, and sub-Saharan Africa is now the lowest-income region in the world despite the fact that during the last two decades Africa has attracted more aid per capita than other developing regions. I hypothesize that focusing primarily on economic growth as the primary means of development has undermined and deterred social development in sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that as foreign investment and debt increase, social development stagnates and even declines. I argue that because of the focus on economics and lack of focus on social and cultural considerations sustained economic growth has been devitalized in sub-Saharan Africa. For this research I employed time-series, cross-sectional regression analysis to test the relative importance of the economic development model on social development in sub-Saharan Africa. My analysis of the forty-eight countries over thirty years gives leverage to the critique of economic growth centered development policies.
Title: SOCIAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.
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Name(s): Wingo, Michelle L, Author
Kinsey, Barbara, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2004
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: For the past thirty years Africa has produced a more noticeably inferior reserve of human capital than other developing regions. This is puzzling because at the inception of independence, the future of Africa looked promising. However, during the 1970s both the political and economic situation in Africa began to deteriorate, and since 1980, the aggregate per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa has declined at almost one percent per fiscal year. Thirty-two countries are poorer now than they were twenty years ago, and sub-Saharan Africa is now the lowest-income region in the world despite the fact that during the last two decades Africa has attracted more aid per capita than other developing regions. I hypothesize that focusing primarily on economic growth as the primary means of development has undermined and deterred social development in sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that as foreign investment and debt increase, social development stagnates and even declines. I argue that because of the focus on economics and lack of focus on social and cultural considerations sustained economic growth has been devitalized in sub-Saharan Africa. For this research I employed time-series, cross-sectional regression analysis to test the relative importance of the economic development model on social development in sub-Saharan Africa. My analysis of the forty-eight countries over thirty years gives leverage to the critique of economic growth centered development policies.
Identifier: CFE0000088 (IID), ucf:46100 (fedora)
Note(s): 2004-08-01
M.A.
College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): development
sub-saharan africa
social development
economic development
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000088
Restrictions on Access: campus 2014-01-31
Host Institution: UCF

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