This period also saw a rise in the number of violent conflicts in the region. Different ethnic or social
groups were fighting for political influence or access to valuable economic resources such as
diamonds (Sierra Leone), oil (Sudan), land (Rwanda) or coltan (Democratic Republic of Congo).
In times of war, the economy loses and in some cases military conflict can even lead to famines,
as in the case of Ethiopia in the mid-1980s and in Somalia and Sudan in more recent years. Not all
African economies fared badly though. Oil producing countries, such as Equatorial Guinea and
Gabon, benefitted from rising world oil prices and the economy of Botswana and Mauritius
experienced rapid economic growth in the last decades of the 20th century.
When we take a closer look at the determinants of African economic growth in the second part of
the 20th century there are at least two factors that set large parts of Africa apart from other
developing regions. The first is that labour productivity in agriculture, (still) the largest sector in
most African economies, has not risen in the same way as it did in large parts of Asia or Latin
America.
Many African countries became net food importers after 1970, whereas many Asian
countries gained self-sufficiency in food production or even became large net exporters of food
crops. Africa has missed the benefits from the so-called “green revolution”, by failing to implement
a range of technological advances in the production of staple foods such as wheat, rice and maize.
The second factor is that Africa has experienced a rather slow process of structural change.
Structural change refers to the transformation of production processes from low value added
activities towards high value added activities. The development of manufacturing industries is a
crucial part of structural change. Manufacturing industries tend to produce more output per worker
than agricultural industries and thus have the potential to raise average income levels. A large part
of the economic growth in Asia has been caused by rapid industrialisation. Countries like Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam produce a vast range of
manufactured commodities and sell these products across the globe, especially to wealthy
consumers in Europe and North America, but increasingly also to emerging African middle class
consumers.
These commodities consists of textiles, shoes, electronics, cars, toys, furniture and
many, many other items With the exception of Japan, most Asian countries underwent a structural change of their
economies during the second half of the 20th century and this process is still on-going. Also in Latin
America industrializing countries such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico have managed to raise labour
productivity levels on the basis of structural change. The result is that in countries like China and
Brazil the number of extremely poor people (those who live on $1.90 per day) has declined rapidly.
Structural change also makes economies more stable, because it implies a diversification of
productive activities: a larger range of economic activities s