New book on African inequalities challenges policy makers

Scholars from an African research centre hosted by the University of Cape Town (UCT) are key contributors to a new book that aims to shape global discussions and discourses on Africa’s inequality challenges. This multi-institution collaborative work was launched on a recent webinar.

Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges examines issues of income inequality, unequal access to education and health care, climate vulnerability and inclusive growth. The book is the 15th volume in the African Development Forum series published by the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

The publication draws on research and analyses by members and partners of the African Centre of Excellence for Research Inequality (ACEIR). The Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) manages ACEIR on behalf of UCT.

ACEIR is one of the centres of excellence of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), a network of African universities that includes UCT. ARUA aims to enhance research and graduate training in member institutions.

Speaking at the AFD’s virtual launch of the publication, Professor Vimal Ranchhod said its release was an exciting moment as the book takes stock of ACEIR’s first five years of research to aid a multidimensional and interdisciplinary understanding of inequalities in African countries and how inequalities can be overcome.

“In 2018, seed funding from the AFD helped set up ACEIR. That was the start of a long and fruitful partnership, including the production of a series of inequality diagnostics for different African countries.”

ACEIR’s research and policy engagements to date have often taken place under the banner of the European Union–AFD Research Facility on Inequalities, a programme that aims to strengthen knowledge on inequality in low- and middle-income countries.

“The hard part is to identify the most important linkages to use when thinking of policies and ways to alleviate or weaken the processes that create inequalities.”

A complex picture of interconnected inequalities

Professor Ranchhod, SALDRU’s deputy director and convenor of ACEIR’s South Africa research node, said understanding – and addressing – inequalities is challenging.

“Think of inequality as a complex set of political, social and economic processes alongside other dimensions such as health, education, gender, spatial dynamics and the labour market. These dimensions are all interlinked.

“The hard part is to identify the most important linkages to use when thinking of policies and ways to alleviate or weaken the processes that create inequalities,” said Ranchhod.

The need for systemic changes and innovative policies

The book underlines the importance of innovative approaches and interventions to reduce inequality on the continent.

Seven of the world’s 10 most unequal countries are in Africa, “a region of extreme inequality by international standards” according to the authors. Africa also has the highest gap between the average incomes of the top 10 percent and the bottom 50 percent.

This widening gap between the rich and the poor hampers efforts to end extreme poverty while delaying progress towards social justice, resilience-building, social cohesion and sustainable development. Poor countries are less able to respond to climate shocks and lack the capacities to adapt to climate change, which will increase inequalities between countries and between countries’ wealthy populations and those living in poverty.

Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges therefore makes a strong case for “systemic changes that can help reshape the conditions under which inequality emerges and persists” and “innovative policies that shift the balance between capital and labour”.

Dr Anda David, senior economist in charge of the AFD’s Research Programmes on Inequality, Poverty and International Migration, explained that the collaboration with ACEIR and its network addressed important shortcomings at the time of the centre’s establishment.

While there was growing consensus on the role of inequalities in reducing poverty, research has tended to focus only on the relationship between poverty and growth.

Dr David said: “If there was more attention on reducing inequality and not just on growth, poverty could have been reduced much more than what has been achieved so far.”

Nothing about Africa without Africa

“Besides the lack of focus on economic inequality in Africa, the research that existed was by institutions from outside of the continent,” according to David. “We strongly believe in local research capacity that can produce research at international standards, which is a goal of the Research Facility on Inequalities.”

Research is a critical tool in the quest for sustainable development and universities have a critical role to play.

The book underlines this role by calling for a “greater focus on empowering African researchers as part of a broader development strategy”.

Strengthening the research and academic infrastructure that enables an understanding of inequality, research capacity building for African scholars and addressing inequities in the sciences are proposed.

Africa is not a country

Ranchhod said ACEIR’s research brings to the fore that the African continent is home to heterogeneous countries with different levels of data quality and availability. These characteristics can complicate researching African inequalities.

“Multidimensional inequalities interact with each other, but not every African country has data on the most important inequalities – such as health and education – to measure their interactions and the consequences.”

Different types of data are needed for comprehensive inequality research to enable an understanding of inequalities not only between different social groups but also within groups with the same social identity.

For example, data on the distribution of income between the rich and the poor can explain vertical inequalities. Data on the distribution of opportunities and constraints within social groups with a common identity (such as gender, race or ethnicity, geographic location) can explain horizontal inequalities.

ACEIR’s Handbook on Inequality Measurement for Country Studies, produced with the support of the Research Facility on Inequalities, provides pointers on the measurement of horizontal inequalities in country studies.

Time for outside-the-box action

There is no magic bullet or single approach to Africa’s inequalities, their interactions and consequences, Ranchhod stated.

“We need to consider the different political, social and economic processes of inequalities and their timelines and the impacts of policy interventions in the short, medium and long terms.”

Policies that go beyond the conventional inside-the-box approaches of minimum wages, progressive income taxation, social grants and social insurance are called for in the book. Such outside-the-box strategies, for example capital-sharing funds and changing the direction of technological development, can alter the social relations that shape incomes.

Beyond-the-box policies on reparations, affirmative action, fair trade and new forms of capital ownership can alter the organisation of wealth and power.

In closing the book launch webinar, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa, Dr Andrew Dabalen, commended the institutions who initiated and are maintaining an African centre of excellence for inequality research.

“This book addresses issues of power relations between the haves and the have-nots. It calls for technology adaptations to help improve workers’ opportunities and wellbeing and for developing social norms that support capping income inequality legally. These are the kinds of radical ideas that need to be put on the table for debate.”

The book was edited by Davids; ACEIR director, Professor Murray Leibbrandt (SALDRU); Ranchhod and Rawane Yasser (AFD). A summary is available in Kiswahili and isiXhosa. These can be accessed via the ACEIR website.