The Dispossession of African Wealth at the Cost of Africa's Health

New data about the outflow of Africa's wealth is synthesized, to reveal structural factors behind the continent's ongoing underdevelopment and to establish a stronger funding base for the health sector.

Abstract

This article synthesizes new data about the outflow of Africa's wealth, to reveal structural factors behind the continent's ongoing underdevelopment. The flow of wealth out of sub-Saharan Africa to the North occurs primarily through exploitative debt and finance, phantom aid, capital flight, unfair trade, and distorted investment. Although the resource drain from Africa dates back many centuries--beginning with unfair terms of trade, amplified through slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism--today, neoliberal (free market) policies are the most direct causes of inequality and poverty. They tend to amplify preexisting class, race, gender, and regional disparities and to exacerbate ecological degradation. Reversing this outflow is just one challenge in the struggle for policy measures to establish a stronger funding base for the health sector.