ABSTRACT
The first development decade (1955–65) was overly focused on industry in theory, the conception of development policy and the allocation both of development cooperation resources and of the recipients’ national budgets. Since then development policy has completed, in theory and practice, the full cycle of initial agricultural pessimism and industrial fundamentalism through concentration on agricultural and rural development and back to priority for the promotion of industry, the urban social sectors and central government, with agriculture very largely neglected (see Chapter 9). In view of the social and economic imbalances that occur in the course of rapid or premature and accelerated urbanization – such as poverty, undernourishment, social alienation and crime, and the problem of a national budget chronically in deficit – voices are heard warning of the imbalances due to the excessive emphasis placed on the industrial and urban development of pre– or early – industrial economies (Mellor 1998a, b; FAD 2001). This is especially true of the sub-Saharan African countries, where the young people of working age migrate to the towns and cities, leaving mothers and children, the elderly and infirm behind in the villages. Whole classes of school-leavers in sub- Saharan African villages between Khartoum and Johannesburg today sit on packed suitcases because there are no economically attractive prospects in the rural areas and hope of a job in the formal sector or just casual labour is still preferable to the wretchedness of village life. Happiness is to be found in the towns and cities, even if you have to sleep in a shack made of plastic and cardboard and your stomach is rarely full, because hope is the more important part of happiness.
