The border: Institutions must be seen to offer stability and security. PHOTO | FILE
By CANUTE WASWA
Mine is not a political column. However,
occasionally, I can’t help but throw my gauntlet in the political ring.
After all, economics and politics are related.
After gunmen from the Somali militant group al-Shabab attacked a bus in northern Kenya, killing 28 people, I had to talk.
Gunmen bullied a section of passengers before shooting the victims in the head, witnesses said.
Against the backdrop of ongoing upheavals in Mandera, I just finished reading Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.
The book discusses how man-made political and
economic institutions determine global gaps in wealth and poverty,
health and sickness, and food and famine.
Based on 15 years of original research, Robinson
and his co-author, Daron Acemoglu of the Massachussetts Institute of
Technology, analysed historical evidence from the Mayan city-states, the
Roman Empire, medieval Venice, and the Soviet Union to produce a new
and insightful theory of political economy that holds significance for
today’s tumultuous world.
The signs were on the Kenya Defence Forces runway
in Mandera. The civil servants begging to be airlifted to Nairobi were
simply communicating that they have lost trust in Kenya’s institutions.
I will use a simple analogy. Imagine going to the
corner store to buy a carton of milk, only to find that the refrigerator
is locked.
When you’ve persuaded the shopkeeper to retrieve
the milk, you then end up arguing over whether you’re going to hand the
money over first, or whether he is going to hand over the milk.
Finally, you arrange an elaborate simultaneous
exchange. This is just a little taste of life in a world without trust—
now imagine that with matters of personal security.
Being able to trust people might seem like a
pleasant luxury, but economists have proved that it’s more important
than that. Trust is about more than whether you can leave your house
unlocked; it is responsible for the difference between the richest
countries and the poorest.
Global economic, health, and social disparities are
not explained by culture, climate, or geography. Instead, man-made
political and economic institutions are what underlie economic success,
or the lack thereof.
Economists agree that human capital —knowledge, skills, and the health to put those to work — is a key component of growth.
To be most effective, opportunities to build human capital must be broadly available in the population.
For the nation to make the most of its human
potential, a child from a low- or moderate-income background needs his
or her talents and abilities to be nurtured and matched to the most
suitable occupation.
Dynamic interactions
Each economic system rests on social pillars called
institutions. By institution I mean more than physical institutions
like prisons, schools, hospitals and the like.
In this context, an institution is any social
construct that facilitates human interaction. They are complex and are
the result of dynamic interactions among the forces of culture, history,
psychology, economics, and so on.
Institutions serve as a psychological need for
stability in our personal life. And that is exactly why we cannot
afford to lose trust in our national institutions.
Those of you who saw the Tom Hanks movie Castaway
will recall that he was fairly successful at providing for his material
needs. But he was willing to sacrifice it all to get back
“civilisation” with all its traffic jams and annoying cell phones.
I’m sure my academic colleagues in biology,
anthropology, psychology and theology would have much to share with
regard to regaining trust in our national institutions.
But I would contend that people need to be together
because they are much more likely to survive if they can work together.
I hope somebody in government read this.
Mr Waswa is a management and HR specialist and managing director of Outdoors Africa. E-mail: waswa@outdoorsafrica.co.ke
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