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Obstacles to progress

Challenges

Fractionalisation (cont.)

Ethnic Linguistic Religious

Rwanda 0.32 0.00 0.51
São Tomé & P 0.00 0.23 0.19
Senegal 0.69 0.71 0.15
Seychelles 0.20 0.16 0.23
Sierra Leone 0.82 0.76 0.54
Somalia 0.81 0.03 0.00
South Africa 0.75 0.87 0.86
Sudan 0.71 0.72 0.43
Swaziland 0.06 0.17 0.44
Tanzania 0.74 0.90 0.63
Togo 0.71 0.90 0.66
Tunisia 0.04 0.01 0.01
Uganda 0.93 0.92 0.63
Zambia 0.78 0.87 0.74
Zimbabwe 0.39 0.45 0.74
Source : Encyclopædia Britannica

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“ We concluded that ethnic and linguistic fractionalization variables, but not religious ones,

are likely to be important determinants of economic success, both in terms of output (GDP
growth), the quality of policies (such as the literacy rate, infant mortality etc.) and the quality

of institutions (measured by the extent of corruption, political freedom, etc.) “

"Divide and Rule or the Rule of the Divided? 178
The Effect of National and Ethnic Institutions on African under-Development."
Papaioannou, Elias, and Stelios Michalopoulos.
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Ethnic Diversity
“ Ethnic Diversity is a major challenge in the development of African economies.

The ethnic groups of Africa number in the thousands, with each population generally having its
own language (or dialect of a language) and culture. The complexity of ethnic groupings

across Africa bring their own challenges for modern day Africa.
On the one hand ethnic groupings can be a key 'building block'.
Our analysis emphasises the importance of ethnic rather than national institutional structures

in explaining African development. The key message of our empirical work is thus to shift the
attention from national factors to ethnic-specific institutional, cultural, and organisational

norms. 14
While our finding that national institutions play no role in explaining differences in regional
development looks at first glance paradoxical, it is in line with a multitude of African case