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Obstacles to progress

Realities

Like many African countries, Kenya's experience with structural adjustment was painful. Import

competition led to major job losses in textile and clothing production. Around 35,000 workers
in these industries lost their jobs in the decade after liberalisation. The transport-equipment

sector witnessed the largest proportional decline in employment, largely because of used-car
imports from Japan. Other sectors that struggled included beverages, tobacco, sugar, cement,
and glass.

The most startling result of liberalisation was the displacement of workers from formal-sector
jobs into the informal sector. Whereas formal wage employment made up nearly 80 per cent of

all non-smallholder agricultural employment in 1988, by 2000 this share was down to a mere
28 per cent. Informal sector work replaced almost all of this.

Contrary to expectations, manufactured exports have not achieved their potential in Kenya. By
the end of the 1990s, export-processing zones (EPZs) accounted for only 1 per cent of Kenya's
manufacturing employment. The manufacturing sector that has done best since liberalisation

– food products –has succeeded largely on the basis of independent growth in Kenya's
horticultural sector. “

"Africa and the Doha Round Fighting to keep development alive Africa and the Doha Round 288
_Fighting to keep development alive"
Oxfam (2005)
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Rolling Power Blackouts

The BBC in 2005

“ More than a century after the invention of the light bulb, only about a quarter of people in sub-
Saharan Africa have access to electricity. In the villages, the situation is worse: 92% of people
have no electricity. And yet countries like South Africa, Zambia, Ghana and Mozambique

generate but export electricity.” 93
"Why Are We Plagued by Power Cuts?" 289
BBC NEWS
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The BBC in 2018
Hydropower dams: What's behind the global boom?

“Hydropower is the world's largest source of renewable electricity. The dams store river water
which, when released, powers turbines and generators to create electricity.
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More than 3,500 hydropower dams are being planned or built around the world, according to a
database maintained by Christiane Zarfl (and others) at the University of Tubingen. This could

double by 2030.
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