Our excuses for not beating poverty are running out

In my last blog post, I promised that I would endeavour to show how we could eliminate the twin problems of unemployment and poverty.

I referred to these two problems as the snake in the room. 

Before I get into the details of what needs to be done, let me provide some background using Hans Rosling’s New Insights on Poverty.    

Rosling argues passionately that it is possible for African countries to get out of poverty just like many other countries have done. 

He demonstrates the dynamic changes that led to the elimination of poverty in other parts of the world using visualisations.

The gist of his thesis is that if we built infrastructure, provided information, technology, schools, health and credit to the people, poverty would be a thing of the past.

I agree with him entirely.  However, you may wonder why our poverty situation remains the same when we have provided the things he presents. 

Certainly, some achievements have been made in Africa.  For example, it took Europe almost a century to deal with the problem of infant mortality whereas it has taken Africa less than 50 years to halve the problem. 

On the whole, however, we have no excuse to remain poor.  We can even do better than the Chinese, who moved 300 million people out of poverty within ten years. 

Let me begin with agriculture, which is still the most important sector in our part of the world.  It employs more than 70 per cent of Kenya’s rural population and contributes in excess of 30 per cent of GDP in many countries.  

PORTABLE DRIERS

Despite its importance, farmers still lack information on markets and on how to improve their productivity. Post-harvest waste is still upwards of 30 per cent of produce and there is virtually no value-addition taking place.   

Improving productivity, reducing post-harvest loss, better linkages to markets, and a little bit of value addition could lift millions of people out of poverty.

If we make pulp from fruits and delay their consumption, we can even out supply for the entire year. There is often a desperate race to save bananas before they go bad, yet farmers can make pastry, puree, soap, and juice. Bananas can also be dried and used as additives to cereals, thereby maintaining their value at all times. 

On other produce, especially cereals, there must be genuine effort to improve on efficiencies around post-harvest losses.  Portable driers (there is already a prototype) can be transported on motorbikes to various homes to dry cereals and avoid wastage. 

More importantly, we must develop micro-storage facilities to replace traditional granaries and prevent the development of aflatoxins.

MICRO SOLUTIONS FOR FARMING

These changes can spur new rural enterprises that will become provide jobs while helping farmers to retain the value of their produce and even reduce the cost of healthcare, due to improved nutrition.

In the past, we dealt with subsistence problems using large-scale solutions, such as huge state-owned storage facilities that are out of reach for most poor farmers.  Micro solutions, which are more similar to the current setup of our farming communities are likely to have a greater impact.

We must also tackle one of the most misunderstood fallacies of development, that we can simply replicate advanced technologies from developed countries and succeed.

Development must proceed from a known position and change incrementally to the desired position. While much of Asia moved ahead through copying, they did it while going through their own learning curve through to innovation. 

We should not expect to wake up one day and make a mobile handset if we have not toyed around with it or tried to copy those whose patents are in the public domain.  Good collaborations, which allow knowledge transfer and new, innovative enterprises to emerge and absorb greater numbers of the unemployed, are however critical.

STUBBORNLY HIGH BIRTH RATE

When Nelson Mandela said that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” he must have reflected on the massive problems that faced blacks in South Africa and most of Africa. 

Education indeed enables us to ask the right questions, to explore, and to be curious and above all, be who we are.  Curiosity dictates, however, that some beliefs and habits be dynamic and change with the times.

In many cases, Africa is held back by the static beliefs and habits of yesteryear.   Our future success depends on how we collectively subscribe to new forms of normative values.

For example, advanced countries have fewer number of children per woman and have a higher quality of life that guarantees high life expectancy.  Child mortality in Africa today is better than it was in most developed countries when their development was at Africa’s current stage.

The trouble is that Africa’s birth rate remains high, despite the fact that mortality rates have dropped.  Our poverty situation will only improve if childbirth changes in response to improved mortality rates.

In Africa today, women with below primary school education have an average of eight children per woman and their economic status is abject.  For women who have finished high school, the average number of children drops to five and they are relatively poor. 

When women finish college, however, the average number of children drops to three per  woman and in terms of class, on average they fall within lower middle income.   

There is therefore a correlation between education, number of children and poverty levels.  In other words, if we want to eliminate poverty, educate women. 

AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE CREDIT

It is proven that with access to affordable credit, poverty is minimised and in many parts of the world, employment is created. Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladesh social entrepreneur, won a Nobel Peace Prize for leveraging credit through Grameen Bank of Bangladesh to reduce poverty

African governments have the resources to replicate some of these successes but, consume much of their resources in bureaucracies that duplicate services.  In Kenya, the Uwezo Fund, the Women Enterprise Fund and other donor-funded programmes duplicate each other.  

All these resources should be channelled to one Bank whose sole mission should be to promote social enterprise in financial services, just like in Bangladesh. 

Credit would also be more meaningful if we developed incubators to nurture micro-enterprises by assisting them identify opportunities, and manage resources and customers.  Through these incubators, we could build collaborations that enable knowledge transfer. 

During my ground research, and after making several presentations in some of our low-income neighbourhoods, including Mihan’go, Kariobangi, the Mukuru and a few others, I have noted that when someone is very poor or desperate and unemployed, all they think about is survival.

Their immediate need is money. Good advice means nothing.  Politicians and NGOs may have fuelled this culture, so that even a sustainable solution may be resisted if no money is not paid to the audience. 

I don’t think people in Europe got handouts in order for them to innovate and eliminate poverty. We would therefore greatly enhance this conversation by suggesting how we can create value in our people without paying them to be helped.

I have noted with gratitude that some of my readers make very constructive comments.  This form of crowd-sourced solution is what will lead to a sustainable solution, and I urge them to please let us continue thinking together. 

Next week, I will address a more descriptive way of dealing with poverty and employment.

The writer is an associate professor at the University of Nairobi’s Business School. Twitter: @bantigito