|
|
|
The PARPA: Towards achieving results - May 2002
|
|
| 3. In the realm of political economy |
| |
An intervention in the economy, based on an aggregate analysis, was not sufficient to generate multiplied effects which would guarantee a socially fair economic growth. Although there were some people who maintained that the problem would be addressed by means of the mere economic growth sequence,11 the fact remains that poverty became part of our daily agenda, and special programmes had to be drawn up. The need arose to disaggregate the analysis and the countries which sought to have their entire debt forgiven had to comply with conditions which bound them to the working out of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).12 It was in this context that the ‘PARPA’ emerged in Mozambique.
Suddenly, after John Stuart Mill, the “pure economy”, the “analytical mathematical economy”, in a normative effort without any precedents, is once more added to the political economy of iconoclasts such as Marx, Veblen and Galbraith, to analyse capital as a social relationship. However, this more or less unconscious theoretical breach, which at least was imposed by the practical results in the application of the neo-liberal models, and perhaps because of this, does not rest, nor is accompanied by, a coherent and consistent theoretical framework. As a result we are confronted by countless imperfections and multiple empiricisms which hamper the performance of the governments of the poorest countries in the world.
|
Footnotes:
- The article by Bloom & Sachs, “Geography, Demography and Economic Growth in Africa”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2, is a clear example of neo-liberal utopia, in suggesting the coastal urbanization of the entire Continent, the specialisation of the transport services and the negation of African cultural diversity as a solution for development problems in Africa. David Dollar, Ajuda ao Desenvolvimento, Reformas e Reduзгo da Pobreza em Бfrica, Dom Quixote, argued also that growth is good for the poor, but avoided any reference to the fact that, by itself, it is not sufficient and for this reason the Bretton Woods institutions began to demand the PRSPs (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers).
- Wolfensohn, J. 2000. Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers; Memorandum to Members of the IMF and World Bank, September 7.
|
|
Related documents