1. Introduction
Despite the presence of many natural resources many resource-rich countries are poor, because they have not enough capital, human resources and technical opportunities to produce them independently. Moreover they have bad management in controlling, distributing and reinvesting resources, which reveals that people as an owner of national resources do not engage and participate in resource distribution policy of country. Nowadays many African countries such as, Central African Republic, Ghana, Senegal, Liberia etc. have lots of mineral resources, especially oil. This natural resource is a great opportunity for development and improvement of every African country's social-economic condition. Countries that have natural resources should have a high life quality. One of the measurements of the high life quality is gross domestic product (GDP). However, according to World Bank's research (2012) “Gross domestic product 2012” many African countries have low GDP, for example, Senegal has 14,160 millions of US dollars of GDP per capita, Central African Republic has 2,139 millions of US dollars of GDP per capita. Liberia has only 1,767 millions of US dollars of GDP per capita. Why these countries in spite of huge natural resources are so poor?
2. Three obstacles to the path of prosperity
A. Lack of human resources and technical opportunities
One of the main reasons of this is lack of human capital that helps to produce the oil. The produce of natural resources demands lots of highly qualified people, such engineers, technologists, operators and etc. So many international companies employ own people who well-educated and has good experience on this, so African people works only as workers. For example, according to Oxfam ...
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... from natural recourses fairly among country's population. Thirdly, they have no some democratic principles and the developed civil society which gives transparency in decision-making process and controlling of the revenue's distribution from natural resources. Furthermore, if remind our main question of topic, we can conclude that having a natural resource means to be poor is consistent pattern while country doesn't solve the above mentioned three problems.
References
1. http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf
2. Lifting the Resource Curse. How poor people can and should benefit from the revenues of extractive industries//Oxfam Briefing Paper, December 2009, p.12
3. D. Onigbinde. Natural Resource Management and its Implications on National and Sub-regional Security: The Case of the Niger Delta//KAIPTC Occasional Paper No. 22, September 2008, p.3
Economic ways started in the nineteenth century, still have a hold on the countries of the sub-Sahara today. These countries are all impoverished and have seen horrific civil wars, however, the general consensus is that they are making slow improvements in their economy. The starvation, overpopulation and health problems are still very evident. Perhaps continued assistance coupled with education and protection will keep them on the road to stability and more rewarding lives for their citizens.
Writ-large, these corrupt policies thus ultimately serve to both perpetuate economic marginalization and vulnerability throughout the oil and gas-producing states of the developing world. On this basis, Sachs & Warner (2001) propose that the resource curse is thus very germane to provoking failed or failing state regime structures inasmuch as the rents provided by resources do not provide incentives for any type of state capability construction other than that which is associated with benefiting from these rents. Thus, according to Sachs & Warner (2001), the resource curse perpetuates
Poverty occurs in most parts of the world. Nevertheless, the more serious and problematical poverty takes part in the third world and the southern parts of the globe. First of all, we have to clearly define the word “poverty';. In a broad sense, it means that people within this “poverty'; region are poor or have a lower average income per capita than other regions. To a deeper approach, we refer “poverty'; as people have low educational backgrounds, lack of food supplies, or people with lower standard of livings, etc. According to the Webster’s New World Dictionary, the word “poverty'; can be defined as: 1) the condition or quality of being poor 2) deficiency; inadequacy 3) scarcity (Webster’s p.461). Generally in this essay, we will examine the facts that lead to the poverty of these third world and southern countries.
policies or does not educate its citizens, then if rich natural resources like oil would be available
Problems began for Africa when there was the “scramble for Africa. Africa was extremely divided throughout the continent. There was no nation intact. Even though they were divided into colonies, they still had no sovereignty. Since they had no form of nationalism it made it impossible to succeed as a nation. This really hurt Africa economically. If they would have been able to come together as a nation they could have pulled all of their assets together and exploit them in order to make money. By not doing this it allowed the government to exploit the people. This is why there are starving people in Africa on television. The states of Africa were created in order to make money by exporting all the various resources, whether it was slaves, minerals, or agriculture. There was much to gain by owning a chunk of land in Africa. This reason being because Africa is so rich in their resources for trade. After the race was over it left Africa severely divided.
Oil-Led Development: Social, Political, and Economic Consequences. CDDRL Working Paper 80. Robinson, J. A., Torvik, R. & Verdier, T. (2006). Political Foundations of the Resource Curse. Journal of Development Economics, 79, 447-468.
Zambia is a landlocked country in south-central Africa with a surface area of 752,600 square kilometers, which is slightly larger than Texas (10). Zambia is the continents biggest copper manufacturer and is the site to one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Victoria Falls (3). So, why is this country on the list of least developed countries? “Social conditions are tough. Poverty is widespread. Life expectancy is among the lowest in the world and the death rate is one of the highest - largely due to the prevalence of HIV/Aids” (3)
The Congo is a country that has the most natural resources in the world which is cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower and timber. Nearly one-half of the population is less than the age of 15 years of age, with some three-fourths under the age 30 with a small fraction of the population is 60 or older. With the limited medical care by the state, along with poverty, violence, and disease it has limited life expectancy, which for both men and women is far below the world average. (add own words)
The measure of petroleum abundance and production in Nigeria is measured by the United States. According to the statistical data and the U.S. measures, Nigeria reserves make the country the tenth petroleum-richest nation, and by far, one of the most affluent countries in Africa. In the middle of 2001 its crude oil production was averaging around 2.2 million barrels per day. Though, there is a very prominent market for offshore rigs, nearly all of Nigeria’s primary reserves are in and around the delta of the Niger river. Ever since Nigeria became independent, it is one of the few oil producing countries that can increase its oil output drastically. The g...
The question to be answered in this paper is to what extent has the resource curse affected the Nigerian economy and government? Resource curse is a term that states the observation that countries that have a plethora of natural resources (e.g. oil, coal, diamonds etc.). usually have unstable political and economic structures (Sachs, 827). Nigeria is categorized as a nation that has succumbed to the resource curse as it has an abundance of, and an overdependence on, oil, and a decreasing gross domestic product (GDP) (Samuels, 321-322). Nigeria is known for its specialization and overdependence on oil and according to Ross, nations of such nature tend to have high levels of poverty, large class gaps, weak educational systems, more corruption within the government, and are less likely to become democracies (Ross, 356).
Omeje, K.. (2006). Oil Conflict and Accumulation Politics in Nigeria. Environmental Change and Security Program Report,(12), 44-49. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from ProQuest Science Journals. (Document ID: 1889169951).
When looking through the topic of development, two drastically different ways to assess it arise. The majority of the western world looks at development in terms of per capita GNP. This means each country is evaluated on a level playing field, comparing the production of each country in economic value. Opposite this style of evaluation is that of the alternative view, which measures a country’s development on its ability to fulfill basic material and non-material needs. Cultural ties are strong in this case as most of the population does not produce for wealth but merely survival and tradition.
Nigeria, with its prodigous oil and natural gas reserves, has the potential to be one of the most affluent places on the planet, were it not for the rampant corruption that defines it. Instead, it is the 20th poorest country in the world1. Much like the guanxi of China, Nigeria practices prebendalism—the use of high-level positions to gain personal wealth. In other words, people exchange money for political favors, which of course creates a greedy and corrupt society. The extent of this fraudulency is such that most of Nigeria's oil wealth is sucked up by one per cent of the population, while more than 60% falls below the poverty line. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has determined that 92% of Nigeria lives on less than one dollar a day2. Meanwhile, it is estimated that in the past 50 years, three to four hundred billion dollars have been stolen by government officials.
Corruption in the Niger delta region of Nigeria has led to abject poverty in the state. State governs in the Niger delta are making living unbearable for the indigenes of state by embezzling public funds for their own purposes. For example in the New York Amsterdam News Guthrie Gray mentioned that “Despite its new wealth, however, the money allocated to Niger delta states does not appear to be getting to most of its citizens” (Guthrie Gray). The means of lively hood in the states has been destroyed by corrupt oil companies and public officers. People in the state can no more farm and fish because their land and water has been destroyed by the oil companies in the area; however, some funds are released by oil companies and the federal government but the government of the Niger delta have refused to put the funds to good use because they are corrupt. They prefer to use the funds for their own benefits, buying houses overseas and having numerous foreign accounts. For about 35 years Oil Company in the Niger delta has refused to give to the community good infra...
Why Nations Fail takes an in depth look into why some countries flourish and become rich powerful nations while other countries are left in or reduced to poverty. Throughout this book review I will discuss major arguments and theories used by the authors and how they directly impact international development, keeping in mind that nations are only as strong as their political and economical systems.