As a continent, Europe currently is the largest economy on Earth and the richest region as measured by assets. And as for Africa, with its 54 fully recognized sovereign states, it is one of the world’s most populous continents, with more than 1 billion people. The continents economy is forecasted to grow by more than 10% yearly for the next 10 years.

As we have seen over the past few years, the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S lead to an economic crisis within the European Union (EU). In December 2008, EU leaders met and agreed on a €200bn- stimulus plan to help boost European growth following the global financial crisis but this did not help since Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Greece could not reduce their budget deficits. After these countries reported a sovereign-debt crisis, and sending shock waves throughout the Eurozone, the continents leadership stood apart about best solution and a way forward. Looking at the European Union, what lessons can Africa learn from it about forming an economic union, building strong economies and forming unified leadership?

Having struggled to free itself from colonialism, Africa is seeking to create a new image: grow the African economy through global trade, and most importantly, through intra-Africa trade, with Africa’s trading blocs playing a key role.

The Eurozone debt crisis can teach Africa significant lessons about increasing trade with Africa itself. The European integration model can be used by Africa in establishing a one currency continent. Currently there are great speculations on formation within Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to allow access and usage of the same currency. The South African Rand in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia is an example of this type of slow currency integration.

Some of the significant things that have made the European integration a success are the treaties, laws and regulations that govern the economic union. For Africa to create laws and regulations that promote free trade between its countries, key trading blocs like the African Union, SADC, Community of West African States, Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa, and Southern African Customs Union will have to constructively collaborate with each other to review and establish new rules and regulations that will encourage increased trading within Africa. Cooperation between these trading blocs must also ensure that African countries minimizes raising household and government debt levels, trade imbalances, structural systems problem, and monetary policy inflexibility, which were the major causes of the current EU economic meltdown.

To ensure that intra-regional trade is beneficial, African countries will have to focus on exporting products that gives comparative advantage. For example, countries such as Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo are principle exporters of copper and diamonds, and thus can increase the export of these goods to other countries.

Africa is still a large exporter of agricultural products and imports many of its manufactured products. The growth of the continent can be better achieved through diversified economic structures. Though it is in a recession, the European economy is still strong, diversified and have competitive industrial structures its manufacturing sector represents 1 out of every 4 private-sector jobs

To increase trade between African countries, for primarily economic and social development, regional economic integration of free trade must be established between the countries. The African Union, working with all the continents six key trading blocs, must spearhead Africa’s development and integration. Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa is playing a crucial role in interconnecting, integrating and transforming Africa’s infrastructure in transport, energy, ICT, and transboundary water networks. The programme will spend close to $80 billion by 2020 in developing Africa’s infrastructure. Just like within the Eurozone, African leaders are struggling with regional integration for supporting the continents economic development.

With great lessons that can be learnt from the success and mistakes of the EU, to unleash intra-African trade and for Africa to take its rightful place in the global arena, the continent needs strong political leadership and policies. Africa is the least integrated continent in the world, with low levels of intraregional economic exchanges and the smallest share of global trade. Africa’s governments and heads of state need to serve as champions. They must set the tone, keep the momentum alive and provide critical national leadership by working together and showing an unwavering commitment to integrated policies, projects and goals that will take Africa to the next level.

The title of this blog is an acronym for my personal quote and philosophy in life. Before I say what the acronym stands for, let me tell a short story of how I started writing quotes.

Starting varsity in Cape Town in 2009, I made a commitment to start reading books more often than I did in matric (last year in high school). So upon arriving in Western Cape, I took time and went to the local library to open a library card. Once I had received the card, I was very excited and took books out immediately. Through reading many books, both fiction and non-fiction, I started to think of how I can get more value from the books I read, and that’s when I came up with an idea of writing quotes.

The above acronym OICLIMY (Oy-kli-me) stands for “Only I Can LImit MYself”. And in essence, it means that I am the only person that can set limits in my mind as to what I can achieve in life, both academic and personal. To remember this every day, I have put up the quote on the wall of my room.

Upon reading the above topic, you probably immediately asked yourself, how? How can healthy citizens contribute to their country’s economic growth? Well, in the next paragraphs, I will explain, in a snapshot, how having healthy citizens can lead to a country’s economic advancement.

Before discussing how having citizens with a healthy lifestyle can be an economic advantage to any country, let me first give you a short background on major health issues facing the world. I will also briefly name some of the main health challenges facing South Africa.

Prevalent global diseases today are heart disease, HIV/AIDS and diabetes mellitus (high blood sugar). Heart diseases include stroke and other cerebrovascular disease. An estimated 17.3 million people died from cardiovascular disease (CVD’s) in 2008, Over 80% of CVD deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries and by 2030, almost 23.6 million people will die from CVD’s. A more shocking fact is that 1.8 million people died of HIV/AIDS in the year 2008, that’s 15.5 million people less than CVD deaths. This fact should serve as a warning on the danger of CVD’s and their potential negative impact on a country’s economy.

Just like many other nations, South Africa (S.A) today is faced with HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases (NCD’s- i.e. a medical condition that is non-infectious and non-transmissible between persons). NCD’S in South Africa include obesity, diabetes, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse and heart diseases. In a study done by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2010, it was found that 49% of South Africans do not exercise, 71% have never dieted and 17% of children under nine are overweight. Even though it might not seem as an issue to take seriously, but S.A. government, including governments of other nations who have similar health problems, should start to consider the direct and negative economic effects of such health issues as they can affect a nation’s productivity and economic performance.

The burden of disease attributed to NCD’s has been estimated at 85% in industrialized nations, 70% in middle income nations, and nearly 50% in countries with the lowest national incomes. Looking at the global population, nearly 80% of deaths due to chronic NCDs worldwide now occur in low and middle income countries. Due to significantly higher income, citizens in developed nations are able to access high quality health facilities, as compared to citizens in middle and low national income countries who have very little income to access high quality health facilities and are forced to use poor public health facilities, which results in middle and low income nations having more deaths from NCD’s compared to developed nations.

Economies worldwide are reportedly suffering huge losses because of premature deaths or inability to work resulting from heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For example, China is expected to lose roughly $558 billion in national income between 2005 and 2015 due to early deaths. In 2005, heart disease, stroke and diabetes caused an estimated loss in international dollars of national income of 9 billion in India and 3 billion in Brazil.

Mental health conditions is also felt in workplaces around the world, notably due to higher levels of absenteeism from work because of illness, and presenteeism, or productivity lost from staff coming to work and performing below normal standards due to poor health. For example, the United Kingdom experienced a loss of about 175 million days in 2006 to absence from illness among a working population of 37.7 million people. The estimated cost of absences due to illness was over 20 billion pounds in the same year.

There is hope though for a healthier world and nations. Consumers today are increasingly looking for foods to counter poor health caused by busy lifestyles, insufficient exercise and fast foods. Healthier meals, lighter snacks and exercise are what consumers are seeking to have healthier lifestyles and longer lives. One of the significant ways governments around the globe can contribute to the long term health and economic development of their nations is by establishing laws that regulate how food is marketed and prepared by fast-food stores and restaurants. For example, a regulation in New York City is that trans-fats are banned, and in 2008, the city began requiring fast-food restaurants to post calorie information on their menu. To ensure health of children, a government can have regulations for standards of food in schools and expect schools to comply with a range of nutritional regulations.

Having a healthy lifestyle is not only beneficial to the individual but also to the nation. Healthy citizens contribute to economic growth because they live and work longer, have higher energy levels and are more present at work, which contributes to increased productivity. A healthy lifestyle is preventative healthcare and disease prevention that help prevent heart diseases and save both citizen and government money on healthcare expenditure. Having a healthy population can be a great competitive advantage for economic advancement over other nations, for both developed and developing countries.

“You won’t change the whole world, but you can make a difference, in your lifetime” ~ Thamsanqa

HIV/AIDS

ALCOHOLISM

UNEMPLOYMENT

MUD SCHOOL

CRIME AND GANGSTERISM

HOMELESS

POVERTY

ABUSE

CHILD-RAPE

CORRECTIVE RAPE

INEQUALITY

“You won’t change the whole world, but you can make a difference, in your lifetime” ~ Thamsanqa

The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) is an independent federal government agency that provides grants to marginalized individuals and groups in Africa. The organization operates in 21 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, and gives grants to develop and grow cooperatives at grassroot level. USADF’s primary aim is economic development that will create livelihood in African communities. Marginalized individuals or groups refers to people that are excluded or have very little access to economic advancement opportunities in their country. USADF particularly places strong focus on conflict and post-conflict communities, and especially women, youth and the disabled people within these communities.

USADF primarily works with marginalized grassroot communities in Africa, who own and run registered cooperatives. The organization has key stakeholders which it works with to create relevant growth and development structures for businesses. The stakeholders are partner organizations and Country Programme Coordinators (CPC’s). The partner organizations include governments, auditing and business consulting firms, and other non-governmental organizations. Country Programme Coordinators (CPC’s) are employees located at the 21 countries USADF operates in, and their main responsibilities are to assess the performance of grantees cooperatives, report performance to program directors, and to continuously monitor internal and external changes in local business environment.

There are many organizations offering development opportunities to African countries, but what make USADF unique is that it grows, develops and empowers the communities it operates in. To empower marginalized individuals and groups, USADF implements a pioneered participatory development model which fosters leadership and solutions made by Africans for their own businesses. This directly results in the grantees learning skills and obtaining knowledge to operate and manage their own cooperatives.

During grant development, projection targets are made and must be met by the organization awarded a grant. To measure results and performance, USADF requires that grantees report their business operations and performance quarterly. To help grantees with their performance report, USADF provides access to assistants who help compile this report. USADF also holds biannual meetings and also has Annual Performance Index (API) to monitor cooperatives ability in meeting projected targets.

Even though the USADF has a unique model which has contributed to its success, there are some key challenges of funding, bureaucracy, and performance measurement, it faces. The organization receives its funding from U.S Government, and in the past years USADF has been experiencing budget constraints, which is fueled by the global economic crises facing America and other countries. A probable solution to this challenge is that the organization could start to consider diversifying its funding sources, have a combination of public and private sector organization funders. Dealing with marginalized individuals and groups in remote areas, USADF still experiences challenges in measuring the socio-economic impact of the cooperatives it assists with grants. Performance measurement is important to know whether USADF is accomplishing its sets objectives. Improving the organizations performance analysis and measurement tools can result in better extraction of information and the USADF can be able to better measure its success in each country and in its overall African operations.

USADF’s biggest success is the empowerment and capacity building of the African people, through working with strategic partners. The model of capacity building and empowerment focuses on effectively engaging more grassroot level development of African cooperatives, and leaves a legacy of business development in Africa.

TIME

Time has never felt so minute

Every second counts and hours brisk by

Oh, how I wish I was not losing grip

Until now, I have always been spoilt with time

It has always been mine

But now, the time sun does not seem to shine

And I wonder if I will pass the line

Whenever I speak to mother, she says I will be fine

Until now, I have always been sure

Things have never felt so obscure

If time was money, I would be poor

After all I endure

At the end I hope to mature

Oh, Mother Africa

Won't you please come to my rescue

Your son is running out of time

If you can't though, I will understand

For time is also not on your side

Time and again, they have torn you apart

But now you are at the start

You may not top the chart

But one thing we know, is that you are smart

And no longer will they say you can't

Even though we do not have time

And the hardship felt straight down our spine

I know that we will be fine

And soon, we will shine.