Problems in Sub -Saharan African economic development: An analysis of the economic causes of civil wars

This study has started with a review of the literature on the structural problems inherent in Sub-Saharan African economic growth. It then proceeded to investigate the economic causes of civil wars in Sub-Saharan Africa relying heavily on the Collier-Hoffler model of civil wars developed by Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler.;The study has attempted to mimic the methodology of Collier and Hoeffler with the exception that additional independent variables (income inequality and minimum democracy) were tested using different measures of these variables.;Thus, I used logistic regression to model war starts as a function of GDP per capita, GDP growth rate, ratio of primary commodity exports to GDP, income inequality, population, social fractionalization, ethnic dominance (45--90%), geographic dispersion, minimum democracy and sub-Saharan African dummy. The regression results found income inequality to be statistically significant to the onset of civil wars in Sub-Saharan Africa. This may mean that the factors that explain war proness are not only primary commodity exports as Collier and Hoeffler have asserted but also the inequitable distribution of resources, which creates income inequality and poverty, factors that favor rebel recruitment.;The econometric model was used to investigate the civil in Sierra Leone. The investigations arrived at the following conclusions: First, that the presence of natural resources does not by itself explain why civil war broke out in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone's war was the result of the mismanagement of the country's natural resources, and by extension the rest of the economy by a predatory national government. This led to a poor distribution of income and eventual economic collapse. Second, the natural resource curse also played an important role in the onset of conflict as the concentration of government resources in the diamond industry constrained agricultural and overall economic growth thereby entrenching poverty and fostering crime and violence. Third, the war in neighboring Liberia had a direct impact on war in Sierra Leone through a spillover effect. The study concluded that war proness in Sub-Saharan Africa is not only limited to primary commodity exports but also the inequitable distribution of resources, which creates income inequality.