GLOBALISATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.docx

**WHAT IS GLOBALISATION?** **To an expert, "globalization in its liberal sense is the process of globalizing, transforming of some things or phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are united into a single society and functioning together. This...

**WHAT IS GLOBALISATION?** **To an expert, "globalization in its liberal sense is the process of globalizing, transforming of some things or phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are united into a single society and functioning together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces". Other experts see globalization as the integration of economies throughout the world through trade, financial flows, the exchange of technology and information and the movement of people and services.** **Globalization is first and foremost a result of the expansion, diversification and deepening of trade and financial links among nations of the world, especially in the past ten years. The much-improved technology in communication has enabled individuals and corporations to base their economic choices more on the quality of the economic environment in different countries**. Because of globalization, there has been a tremendous cross-border financial flow, particularly in the form of private equity and portfolio investment, compared with the past. A lot of families, especially in the third world countries benefit from a lot of remittance from developed world. In addition, the revolution in technology and other communication have made communication easier and better than hitherto. **Economic success in today's world is based not on relative resource endowments or geographical location as it used to be in the past**. Market perception and predictably of economic policy now take precedent over other considerations. The indices of these are multilateral trade tariff reduction and trade liberalisation efforts. Increasing trade, a benefit from globalization, has given consumers and producers a wide choice low-cost goods, which attract more advanced technology and facilitated a more efficient use of global resources. Greater access to the international market allowed countries, even third world countries, to exploit their comparative advantage to produce more goods and services for the international markets. The rapid increase in capital and private investments flows has raised the resources available to countries. This in turn has also accelerated their level of development beyond a perceived pace. The openness to foreign investments, especially in the developing economy has increased the capital flow from such countries. It has also increased employment rate too. **Effect of Globalisation on Africa** **African countries have no known good macroeconomic policy.** Those countries that have good macroeconomic policies are able to take advantage, respond quickly and appropriately to changes in the international environment. **While globalization rewards good policy, it also punishes bad policy or increase poverty in countries with poor policy**. **Countries especially African countries are sometimes bypassed by the gains of globalization because of bad policy and an unarticulated financial set up to achieve the gains of globalization.** The trade that now emerges is built on an unacceptable level of social inequalities to vulnerable communities and groups, or causes global ecological or environmental damage and disregard to our future generations cannot be said to be conducive to sustainable development. Established and large companies especially the Trans National Corporations (TNCs) came in to Africa and brought in the finished goods at cheaper rates than goods produced in Africa. **In some cases, they established industries in African nations, employed cheap labour and produced goods that compete favourably with African articles. In Zimbabwe and Nigeria, the textiles industries were worst hit.** **Today, most industries in these countries have been closed down because of the competition with foreign textiles.** **-The tyre and battery industries in Nigeria suffered the same fate. This led to the retrenchment of workers that worked in these industries. These workers were family breadwinners with children in schools and house rent to pay. The importation of second-hand clothes from Europe has forced many workers out of business.** -**In Kenya, the women who were involved in the local production of local bags were negatively affected when bags were produced en masse in Japan and sold in East Africa.** **Many second-hand bags, shoes and belts flooded the Nigerian markets too. Companies that produced these goods have been closed down. This created a lot of unemployment in the country. Though many Nigerians are involved in the sale of these goods, government cannot get tax from most of these traders, and besides, most of these goods are smuggled goods.** -**In Mali, foreign investors have taken over the major revenue earning enterprises such as tobacco and textile industries.** **-In Nigeria, the oil sector is dominated by external investors. The only airline in Mali was taken over by foreign investor.** **-In Zambia, the spirits, motor and textile industries are dead. Massive unemployment is a commonplace in Africa. In Zambia for example, retrenchments and industrial close down has led a staggering number of over 200,000 people out of employment over a period of five years since 1992. In Nigeria alone, there are over about five million unemployed persons. The African markets have become a dumping ground for European goods and from the East, all in the name of free trade.** **THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALISATION** **for Africa Globalization will continue to increase interdependences among different countries and regions. It may also reinforce partnership between the advanced countries and the rest of the world. In order to sustain this relationship, the advanced world could open up their markets for products from developing nations, especially the goods they have comparative advantage to produce.** In addition, the reform efforts of the African countries will need to be adequately supported by funds from the international organization's based on concessional terms. The World Bank must accept the proposal of debt forgiveness presented by poor nations to it. This will enable these countries to solve their financial problems. World Bank has recently begun implementing the framework for action to resolve the external debt problems of heavily indebted low-income countries including their large multilateral debts. Three African countries -- Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda are among the countries to be considered. Nigeria has also enjoyed debt forgiveness from Paris and London Clubs, after negotiating its way out of the debt peonage by paying up a substantial part of the debt, and having the rest forgiven. The challenge facing African nations is their inability to design public policies so as to maximize the potential benefits from globalization and to minimise the downside risks of destabilization or marginalization. **Globalisation's Problems and Consequences** for States in Africa Critics believe that globalization is nothing but a new order of marginalization of the African continent. Though it is a universalisation of communication, mass production, market exchanges and redistribution, rather than engineering new ideas and developmental orientation for Africa, it subverts Africa's autonomy and power of self-determination. By design rather than accident, Africa's poverty level has been on an astronomical increase despite the continent's abundant resources. In fact, the burden of debt by African nations has reached two trillion dollars (World Bank, 1994). It has crippled industrialisation in Africa. This is evidenced in the area of cost of production, which has become unassumingly high in most nations of Africa e.g. Nigeria. Other inhibiting factors are subversion of local products through high importation of various types of goods, currency devaluation and depletion of foreign reserves. This clearly raises the problems of marginalization, which according to Ake (1996), is in reality the dynamics of under-development. In another vein, while it is true that globalization encourages free trade among nations of the world on an international level, there are also negative consequences, because some countries try to protect their national market. The main export of African nations is usually unprocessed agricultural goods. It is very difficult for these countries to compete with industrialized nations of the world that subsidise their own farmers. Because of stiff competition, the African farmers are forced to sell at the dictate of foreign buyers. There is a constant exploitation of foreign workers by the advanced economy. Because of lack of employment opportunities in African countries, most skilled Africans have moved to industrialized world. The mass movement of this people and due to lack of protections, companies from the industrialized world are able to offer workers enough salary to entice them to endure long hours of work under unsafe working conditions. Nation-states in Africa today are unable to define the rules and regulations of their economy, production, credits and exchange of goods and services due to the invading menace of globalization. It has imposed heavy constraints on the internal management dynamics of almost all the countries of Africa. For example, unmindful of the governed, Nigeria government under President Olusegun Obasanjo increased fuel price to 50 percent in 2000. The inability of African leaders to resist imposed policy options at cost to African nations has created "inequality in the status of the members of the "villagised" world". This was amplified by Madunagu (1999) when he said: The result of globalization in Africa, is basically a competition between centres (Developed world) and the slums (Africa) of the village where preponderant majority of the people daily sink deeper into poverty and misery. The imperialistic cultural dimension of globalization, particularly in the area of internet connectivity which has been used as bait for wooing Africa and other developing world to a global village has done more damage to our cultural value, ethics and morality. It has exposed Africans to the unsanctity of cultural imperialism. Coded in form of human degradation, the blue film for example, which is alien to African cultural practice, has exposed, especially the teenagers to a world of fantacies and unrealistic copulation of drugged partners. The Yahoo, Yahoo boys, as they are called in Nigeria, has created another class of fraudsters among the youths. Instead of using this means to enrich their education, youths in Nigeria use the opportunity to defraud foreigners, who also want to make quick money from the oil rich Nigerian environment. A sort of cultural imperialism which will seek to enslave the African mind, leaving in its wake a cultureless or culturally disoriented people (may become a permanent feature of Africa and or people)". It has been argued that globalization has damaged Africa's natural environment and, 'in balance cost and benefit', it has been disaster for Africa both in human and material resources that are present in Africa. The UNDP's Human Development Report 1996 states that: Twenty countries in Africa (today) have per capital income lower than 20 years ago. Two-thirds of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are in Africa. A foodsurplus continent twenty years ago, Africa is now fooddeficit (UNDP -- HDR, 1996:2). The important points to note is that globalization through its "heavy constraints" is changing the way in which major institution heads think and operate across nations and within nations. Globalization is shaping their action and inaction, what people do and what they don't do. In fact, their identity is gradually changing and how they see themselves too. This is actually disturbing in Africa. Thorbecke (1997) said of Africa, that "is the only developing region where poverty is increasing", considering that: African governments (now) seem to have lost control of the policy making process, and are under pressure to accept the dictation from creditor nations and financial institutions. Governments (African) now tend to discuss development issues less with their nationals, and more with donors and creditors, about debt repayment, debt relief and rescheduling and paradoxically about more development assistance (which rather than develop them further their underdevelopment and dependency( (emphasis mine) (Nwaka, 2000). **SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS** Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability focusses on equal economic growth, that generates wealth for all, without harming the environment. Investment and an equal distribution of the economic resources will strengthen the other pillars of sustainability for a complete development. **IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT** Sustainable development is important because it encourages us to preserve our natural resources, respect the environment, and conserve biodiversity. **Sustainable development is important because we have responsibilities toward future generations. They should also be able to:** - **Have access to enough natural resources to fulfill their fundamental needs** - **Conserve the environment, biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and clean oceans** - **Live in a peaceful, fair, and thriving society** - **Enjoy a growing economy and have access to decent employment** - **We have no reason to use more natural resources than what we strictly need** **The five principles of sustainable development are as follows:** - Conservation of the ecosystem or the environment. - Conservation of biodiversity of the planet. - Sustainable development of the society. - Conservation of human resources. - Population control and management. **SDGS** The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of global goals for fair and sustainable health at every level: from planetary biosphere to local community. The aim is to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity, now and in the future. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to transform our world. They are a call to action to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2012. The purpose was to create a set of global goals, related with the environmental, political and economic challenges that we face as humanity. sustainable development continuously seeks to achieve social and economic progress in ways which will not exhaust the Earth\'s finite natural resources. Thus, we must all develop ways to meet these needs so that our future generations can inherit a healthier and greener planet. The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world: [GOAL 1: No Poverty](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/?page_id=6226&preview=true) [GOAL 2: Zero Hunger](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal2.html) [GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal3.html) [GOAL 4: Quality Education](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal4.html) [GOAL 5: Gender Equality](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal5.html) [GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal6.html) [GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal7.html) [GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal8.html) [GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal9.html) [GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal10.html) [GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal11.html) [GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal12.html) [GOAL 13: Climate Action](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal13.html) [GOAL 14: Life Below Water](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal14.html) [GOAL 15: Life on Land](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal15.html) [GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal16.html) [GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal](http://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030-goal17.html)