Left behind, or catching up?
Bad news and celebrities dominate the news. If you challenge a news editor about this, you will likely hear an explanation that selecting other subjects results in a reduction in the click count. This institutional bias towards the famous and the tragic does, however, result in a distorted understanding of the world’s events. Non-famous people engaging in brilliant or humanitarian enterprises have far more influence than many imagine, and little profile.
Earlier this year, I deepened my knowledge of the Africa Bridge model in southern Tanzania when I visited some of the projects, which involve subsistence farmers in one of the most deprived areas of the world. Africa Bridge, running for over 20 years now, has lifted thousands of people out of extreme poverty, as confirmed by independent academic research, featured in the book I helped to write on the project, And the Children Shall Lead Us, by Barry Childs. It bears comparison with an earlier project, the microfinancing Grameen Bank, founded some 40 years ago by Muhammad Yunus (belatedly famous, perhaps — he was appointed interim President of Bangladesh while I was penning this article).
The low profile of successful social entrepreneurialism contributes to a misunderstanding of many social and economic dynamics. In this blog, I would like to focus on a particular feature of the enterprises in southern Tanzania that challenge some of the popular notions around globalization, poverty and social divisions that arise from the distortions of news media bias.
There is much discussion in Europe and the USA about the ‘left behind’ regions, or the rust belts — for example, the de-industrialized cities in the USA, former coal towns and seaside resorts in England and deprived parts of eastern Germany. Typically, they only get reported on when something goes wrong, such as a riot. Populist political movements, in some cases with anti-globalization messaging, find much of their support in these regions.
Superficially, the world appears to be fragmenting between an educated and connected global community, and regions that are disconnected, impoverished and resentful. The divide appears to be worsening.
In Tanzania, I noticed that the farmers use cell phones, sometimes smartphones, not only to communicate but to make and receive digital payments. They sell avocados through cooperatives to major supermarkets in Europe. They invest their higher earnings in a better home for their family and, in some cases, university education for their children. They are as plugged in to the global economy as any freelance creative or tech adviser from the wealthiest regions in the world.
Africa is a continent that is socially and economically on the move; perhaps at a similar level of development to that of India and China 30 years ago. The AIDS pandemic is significantly reduced (thanks in large part to health program funded by the George W Bush administration, championed by Condoleezza Rice). Life expectancy has finally started to rise. Digital connections are not enough; conventional infrastructure is also necessary. While the roads in Tanzania are poor, there are modern airports and a good service of internal flights by Air Tanzania with a fleet of modern Airbuses.
There is still a pronounced tendency in the west to report on Africa only where there is conflict or poverty. The Africa Bridge project, which seed-funded many of these enterprising agricultural projects, will struggle to attract the same attention as political upheavals in Kenya or conflict in the Sahel. But Africa Bridge and similar developments in other African nations are of potentially greater long-term significance.
· And the Children Shall Lead Us, by Barry Childs, is published by Breakthrough Books, available from Amazon.
