Abstract
International organizations have been discussing the issue of poverty and development in Africa since the end of colonialism. However, results have been inadequate, and the majority of the African population still lives in poverty and lacks access to healthcare, education, and safety. This chapter analyzes the benefits of preferential trade agreements in supporting both economic and social development. PTAs that are conditional to peace and human rights protection can be the economic tool to end violence, corruption, and bad government in Africa. Foreign economic policy in the past has left African countries indebted to the West and in competition with much older, more developed economies. This chapter discusses how the recently negotiated African Continental Free Trade Area can strengthen intracontinental trade. The agreement, if managed correctly, has the potential to grow the African economy massively and help lift people out of poverty while enforcing an end to violence from state-actors across the continent.
TopBackground
Any discussion revolving around state violence requires an interdisciplinary approach, as one country's success can never be attributed to one single factor, and it must be observed through a multitude of lenses. Similarly, there are many schools of thought on what constitutes a developed country, but scholars over the last two decades have widely agreed that economic prosperity cannot be the only factor at play in this determination.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Import Dependency: The economic characteristic of a country that cannot produce enough goods and services to sustain its citizens and must depend on importing the majority of its forms of sustenance.
Washington Consensus: A set of free-trade economic policies supported by international institutions, such as the World Bank or the IMF, at the base of borrowing conditions in developing countries.
Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs): A trade agreement that offers members favored treatment and reduced tariffs.
Capabilities Approach: A theory of development economics that focuses on the enhancement of people's ability to pursue a better quality of life rather than a country's economic performance.
Neocolonialism: The practice of influencing or controlling developing countries into subjugation through the use of economic, political, and cultural pressures.
Global Apartheid: A term used to describe the decision process of some international institutions in which a minority of wealthy nations rule over a large number of impoverished states.
Human Development Index (HDI): An index compiled by the United Nations to measure capability-driven development globally based on life expectancy, education, and economic inequality.
African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): A trade agreement signed by 54 out of the 55 African countries to facilitate the trade in goods, services, and people.
Global Peace Index (GPI): A yearly report by the Institute for Economics and Peace that uses data-driven analysis to measure trends in global peace.