Final Thoughts

Over the last several blog posts, I have attempted to uncover some of the political complexities influencing the delivery of water in Africa. Throughout this process, I have managed to challenge a number of assumptions I had prior to commencing this module. One particular thing that I have found most interesting to learn about is how much Africa has been shaped and influenced by political strategies on national and global levels. Africa has been subject to changing paradigms as much as the rest of the world, however, has resulted in different outcomes, mainly due to the varying and complex needs. Additionally, the Africa is not one large entity, but consists of different regions and groups of which there are undoubtedly many given the size of Africa.

Early on in the blog, I spent a lot of time discussing the role of government and a shift towards privatisation. I felt understanding these issues helped me gain a broader context of the situation as it shows how political agendas have shifted globally, and what that has meant for places around the world. For example, independence in Africa saw a rise post WWII due to a number of conditions specific to that time. This was also a time when economic theories placed state involvement at high importance for providing infrastructure at a global level, with Africa being no exception. There were evidence of ill-effects of this approach leading to privatisation becoming more prominent, even being endorsed by the World Bank as means to improve efficiency and reduce corruption. Unsurprisingly, this created new challenges as there were mixed results depending on specific needs of regions. The shifting political agendas impacted on types of projects that were being undertaken. For example, large scale dam construction conducted by way of top down management led to a number of issues.

Ultimately for me, the biggest take away from learning about water politics in Africa is that specific needs require unique approaches as what works somewhere, may not always work elsewhere. That goes for different parts of Africa but also different parts of the world as well. For instance, what might work in western countries may not work in parts of Africa because the needs are different; the politics of which can heavily influence outcomes, either negatively or positively.

Thank you all for reading my blog posts and I hope you learned as much as I have.