Political scientist measure states by their ability to provide services to citizens. They divide states into three categories based on this criterion. The first category consists of the strong states. These are states which provide sufficient services to their citizens (Rotberg, 2015). There are weak states that supply less-than-adequate public services to their citizens. Failed states follow and finally collapsed states. A state that is regarded as weak has some hallmarks that form the cornerstone of the definition. These states share some properties that are explained below:
Low human development
The two facets of human development to focus on are literacy levels and health. There have been leaps and bounds in the progression of the health sector and literacy levels as a whole over the past 20 years (WHO, 2015, p.84). However, there is still a large disparity between the weak African countries compared to the strong countries outside Africa. For instance, of the 438,000 malaria deaths, 90% are from Africa. Another disparity is in HIV/AIDS; 60 % of the cases originate from Africa (WHO, 2015, p.84). Similar to health, literacy rates have been rising steadily over the past few decades. However, the lowest literacy rates are observed in sub-Saharan Africa. Literacy rates are below 50% for those above the ages of 15 in countries such Mali, South Sudan and Liberia. It should be noted, however, that there are variations in the literacy rates in the older populations as opposed to the younger generations. There are greater levels of illiteracy in the older generations as opposed to the younger ones.
Dependence on Foreign Aid
As mentioned earlier, a weak state is not in a position to provide sufficient public services to her citizens. All of these states are reliant on taxation of their citizens. However, taxation alone is not enough to run the government or in particular, service their annual budget. Therefore, this calls upon for these states to rely on external donations or aids in the form of loans from international bodies such as The World Bank. For instance, The World Bank loaned a total of 16.2 billion USD to Sub Saharan countries in 2017, and this is 6.5 billion dollars more than East Asia and Latin American countries which came in second at 9.7 billion USD.
Concentration on exports
In addition to relying on foreign aid, with the limited use of domestic resources, these states are not in a position to come up with major exports. Apart from a few exceptions, more than 80% of exports from Sub Saharan countries are unprocessed materials. Fuel alone accounts for approximately 26% of export revenues, with Nigeria and Angola comprising the 10% of all the exported oil. (European Report on Development, 2009, p17). Although the Nigerian and Angolan Oil export comprises 40 percent of their GDP, it is still not a significant amount when compared to other developed countries. The vast majority of Kenyan export centers on unprocessed materials such as tea which is exported majorly to Great Britain (Kenya Economic Report 2017, p.9). This scenario echoes the situation in all the weak countries, that is, there is an overreliance on primary products.
Underdeveloped infrastructure
Among the key ingredients of economic development, infrastructural development is undeniably among the main ones. However, Sub-Saharan Africa ranks at the bottom in regards to infrastructural development all over the world. (World Bank Group, 2017, p.39). In addition to poor infrastructural development, accessibility to clean water is another concern in most African states. For instance, 30 percent of Africans living in Africa are not able to access clean water. This again demonstrates why most of the weak states are from Africa.
In regards to the road network, Sub-Saharan Africa has not done much to either construct or improve road network, despite the fact that roads play a key role in not only the transportation of goods and services but also in the movement of people from one place to another. This may be due to financial constraints, or poor planning (Yepes, Pierce, and Foster 2008). Compared to other developing countries, Africa lags behind in infrastructural growth, especially in: power generation and road network. It is for this reason, among many others, that qualifies most African states to fall under the class of weak states.
Conflict
Political instability is another factor that has been used to categorize or rather, label most African states as weak. Despite all African states possessing a well-established and trained military and police force, a number of these countries fail to maintain peace and stability within their secured borders. A good example is Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and lately, South Sudan. For instance, in the 1990s, Burundi’s and Rwanda’s Governments were unable to stop the mass killings that ensued. To start with Rwanda, the conflict was tribal between the Hutu and the Tutsis. The Hutus felt marginalized and underrepresented in government, thus, decided to use violence to confront their fellow citizens, Tutsis. Although it began as a small matter, the Rwandan government at the time was not in a position to manage the conflict but instead, left it degenerate to mass killings (Taras, and Ganguli, 2015, p.233). According to political analysts, such incidents rarely occur in strong countries but are common in weak states such as Rwanda.
Conclusion
All in all, it is evident that a weak state is one in which the government is incapable of providing adequate services to its people. Moreover, many of these weak states can be found in Africa. The hallmarks used to identify weak state include dependence on foreign aid or donations, inability to utilize domestic resources, low human development, underdeveloped infrastructure and political instability.
References
European Commission (2009), European Report on Development 2009. European Union. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. (2017), Kenya Economic Report 2017. Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)
TARAS, R., GANGULY, R., " TARAS, R. (2010). Understanding ethnic conflict: the international dimension. Boston, Longman
World Bank. (2017). Africa's pulse (English).Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/03/19/world-bank-group-announces-record-57-billion-for-sub-saharan-africa [Accessed Apr. 16, 2018]
World Bank. (2017). Africa's pulse (English).Washington, D.C. World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/626761467034000984/Roads-and-rural-development-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa [Accessed Apr. 16, 2018]
World Bank. (2017). Africa's pulse (English).Washington, D.C. World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/348741492463112162/Africas-pulse[Accessed Apr. 16, 2018]
World Health Organization. (2008). World malaria report. Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization.
Yepes, T., Pierce, J., Foster, V. (2008), ‘Making Sense of sub-Saharan Africa’s Infrastructure Endowment: A Benchmarking Approach’, AICD, Working Paper. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
