"Africa in the lurch?: EEC and member states commitments to a poor Francophone African nation (Niger)"

Charlick, Robert B. (1991) "Africa in the lurch?: EEC and member states commitments to a poor Francophone African nation (Niger)". In: UNSPECIFIED, Fairfax, Virginia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

[From the Introduction]. In thirty years of formal independence few of France's former African colonies have flourished. Some, notably the countries bordering on the Sahara desert known collectively as the Sahel, are among the poorest nations on earth. Economically they are characterized by weak export economies, often depending heavily on a single, inelastic commodity, by low levels of productivity, by low levels of foreign investment, and by a declining standard of living which has left their rapidly growing populations worst off today than in 1960. They suffer from being landlocked, often over one thousand miles from an ocean port, with regional organizations that do not assure the free movement of goods and labor and which fail to compensate interior states adequately for customs revenues collected at the port of entry. In recent years, they have all been confronting debt burdens and fiscal crises, which, while mild in world terms, are crushing for such weak economies. As a result, all have been under the tutelage of the I.M.F. and World Bank, and of the Paris and London Clubs, attempting to be good students of the banks, fulfilling their conditions to the letter.' Yet these international policies have obviously failed to produce the desired result of "economic development."

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