User:Vicentiagyau/sandbox

Article Evaluation

Resource curse

As I started to read the article, I realized that the definition of the resource curse is not cited. It is simply defined without any sources or evidence to back the definition.

The article also makes many claims that are not supported by sources or cited. This happens often in the article such that there are notifications on the article, informing readers that the claims made in the article need to be cited, and backed by scholarly articles. In addition, the article did not provide further information on some of the names of people it mentioned. The article fails to hyperlink information about some of the persons and institutions it mentions.

Furthermore, the section sin the article are not properly ordered. The headings do not provide much information on the claims made in the paragraphs under those headings. There are also certain sections of the article, like the subheading "Distribution", that does not seems to have a neutral voice, especially in the beginning sentence of that sub heading.

Most of the links and sources in the article are scholarly articles that are still available online and in print form. Overall, it is a simple article that provides concise arguments. However, it is poorly cited, and the headings and subheadings may be confusing to readers.

It would be a great idea for the article to include a list of resource countries, as a way of adding more information on which countries have what kinds of resources. This will help to enrich the article.

The talk page of the article largely reflected my observations and comments about the article. Some discussions on the talk page call for the claims made in the article to be backed by sources and cited. Other comments on the talk page also asked for the article to be merged with other topic, and another comment on the talk page also suggested that the article should provide a list of countries who are considered as resource cursed. Generally, the talk page discusses issues of sources, citation, and the possible merger of the article with other articles.

Adding Citation to the Resource curse:

I will add a citation to the definition of the resource curse in the article, since the definition of resource curse in the article is not cited.

The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals), tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. [form Development aid article]

Wikipedia Draft - African Politics (PS 146A) Spring 2019

For my wikipedia draft, I am adding a section to the Development aid article. Please note that this article is different form the article I reviewed. I want to add a section to talk about the effects of foreign aid on the economies of African countries; the death of local industries, and neocolonialism. I want o add tis section because the article discusses effects of development aid on Africa, but only in terms of Exit-Voice-Loyalty. I want to add to the article by discussing other effects of aid on dependent countries more specifically, African countries. I also want to move the heading "Effect on the Recipient Country's Development" from the "Effectiveness" because it does not fit well under that section in terms of structure. I will create a new section called "Effects of Foreign/Development Aid", where I will move the "Effect on the Recipient Country's Development" , and also add my contributions on the other effects of foreign aid on African countries.

Effects of Development Aid in Africa.

Aid is widely regarded as the assured way to secure economic development and growth of many African countries.^[24] This idea of aid as the answer to economic development stems from the success of the Marshall Plan^[25] which was an American initiative to provide aid/economic assistance to Western Europe, to rebuild their economies.

While most economists like Jeffery Sachs hold the view of aid as the driver for economic growth and development, others argue that aid has rather led to increasing poverty and decreasing economic growth of poor countries.^[24] Economists like Dambisa Moyo argue that aid does not lead to development, but rather creates problems including corruption, dependency, limitations on exports and dutch disease, which negatively affect the economic growth and development of most African countries and other poor countries across the globe.^[24][26]

Aid is defined as the concessional loans (characterized by interest rates below market rates and longer grade period for repayment of loans), and grants given by rich nations to the poor ones. ^[24]For aid to be effective and beneficial to economic development, there must be some support systems or ‘traction’ that, will enable foreign aid to spur economic growth.^[27] Research has also shown that Aid actually damages economic growth and development before ‘traction’ is attained.^[27]

Death of Local Industries

Foreign aid kills local industries in developing countries.^[28] Foreign aid in the form of food aid that is given to poor countries or underdeveloped countries is responsible for the death of local farm industries in poor countries.^[28] Local farmers end up going out of business because they cannot compete with the abundance of cheap imported aid food, that is brought into poor countries as a response to humanitarian crisis and natural disasters.^[29] Large inflows of money that come into developing countries, from the developed world, in a foreign aid, increases the price of locally produced goods and products.^[26] Due to their high prices, export of local goods reduces.^[26] As a result, local industries and producers are forced to go out of business.

Neocolonialism:[edit]

Neocolonialism is where a state is “in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside”.^[30] The political and economic affairs of a state under neocolonialism, is directly controlled by external powers and nations from the Global North, who offer aid or assistance to countries in the Global South or developing countries.^[30] Neocolonialism is the new face of colonialism, which is made possible by foreign aid.^{[31] [32]}Donor countries offer foreign aid to poor countries while bargaining for economic influence  of the poor or receiving countries, and policy standards that allow donor countries to control economic systems of poor countries, for the benefit of the donor countries.^[33]  

Foreign aid creates a system of dependency where developing or poor countries become heavily dependent on western or developed countries for economic growth and development.^[34] As less developed countries become dependent on developed countries, the poor countries are easily exploited by the developed countries such that the developed world are able to directly control the economic activities of poor countries.^[35]

Main Space Wikipedia Entry (Ps 146A - African Politics)

• This edit can be found under within the first paragraph of the article.

- It can be further defined as "aid expended in a manner that is anticipated to promote development, whether achieved through economic growth or other means".^[1]

• I moved the content under 'Quality' to the 'History and Background' section of the article and reworded it to 'Critique of development aid'.
• I added the following section:

Effects of Foreign Aid in Africa

While most economists like Jeffery Sachs hold the view of aid as the driver for economic growth and development, others argue that aid has rather led to increasing poverty and decreasing economic growth of poor countries.^[26] Economists like Dambisa Moyo argue that aid does not lead to development, but rather creates problems including corruption, dependency, limitations on exports and dutch disease, which negatively affect the economic growth and development of most African countries and other poor countries across the globe.^[26][27]

For aid to be effective and beneficial to economic development, there must be some support systems or ‘traction’ that, will enable foreign aid to spur economic growth.^[28] Research has also shown that Aid actually damages economic growth and development before ‘traction’ is attained.^[28]

Death of Local Industries:[edit]

Foreign aid kills local industries in developing countries.^[29] Foreign aid in the form of food aid that is given to poor countries or underdeveloped countries is responsible for the death of local farm industries in poor countries.^[29] Local farmers end up going out of business because they cannot compete with the abundance of cheap imported aid food, that is brought into poor countries as a response to humanitarian crisis and natural disasters.^[30] Large inflows of money that come into developing countries, from the developed world, in a foreign aid, increases the price of locally produced goods and products.^[27] Due to their high prices, export of local goods reduces.^[27] As a result, local industries and producers are forced to go out of business.

Neocolonialism:

Neocolonialism is where a state is “in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside”.^[31] The political and economic affairs of a state under neocolonialism, is directly controlled by external powers and nations from the Global North, who offer aid or assistance to countries in the Global South or developing countries.^[31] Neocolonialism is the new face of colonialism, which is made possible by foreign aid.^{[32] [33]}Donor countries offer foreign aid to poor countries while bargaining for economic influence  of the poor or receiving countries, and policy standards that allow donor countries to control economic systems of poor countries, for the benefit of the donor countries.^[34]  

Foreign aid creates a system of dependency where developing or poor countries become heavily dependent on western or developed countries for economic growth and development.^[35] As less developed countries become dependent on developed countries, the poor countries are easily exploited by the developed countries such that the developed world are able to directly control the economic activities of poor countries.^[36]

Aid Dependency:

Aid dependence is defined as the "situation in which a country cannot perform many of the core functions of government, such as operations and maintenance, or the delivery of basic public services, without foreign aid funding and expertise".^[37] Aid has made many African countries and other poor regions incapable of achieving economic growth and development without foreign assistance. Most African economies have become dependent on aid and this is because foreign aid has become a significant norm of systems of international relations between high and low income countries across the globe.^[37]

Foreign aid makes African countries dependent because it is regarded by policy makers as regular income, thus they do not have any incentive to make policies and decisions that will enable their countries to independently finance their economic growth and development.^[26] Additionally, aid doe not incentivize the government to tax citizens, due to the constant inflow of foreign aid, and as a result, the citizens do not have any obligation to demand the provision of good and services geared towards development.^[26]

Corruption:

Main articles: Political corruption and Aid § Support of corrupt state structures

While development aid is an important source of investment for poor and often insecure societies, aid's complexity and the ever-expanding budgets leave it vulnerable to corruption, yet discussing it remains difficult as for many it is a taboo subject.^[38]

Foreign aid encourages rent-seeking, which is when government officials and leaders, use their position and authority to increase their personal wealth without creating additional wealth, at the expense of the citizens.^[26] Most African leaders and official, are able to amass huge sums of personal wealth for themselves from the foreign aid received - they enrich themselves and do not use the aid provided for its intended purpose.^[26]

[note: I added this section to the corruption section because I moved the content on corruption form its original section to the new section I created. I also removed a sentence that did not seem to fit.]

Corruption is very hard to quantify as it is often hard to differentiate it from other problems, such as wastage, mismanagement and inefficiency, to illustrate the point, over $8.75 billion was lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.^[38] Non-governmental organizations have in recent years made great efforts to increase participation, accountability and transparency in dealing with aid, yet humanitarian assistance remains a poorly understood process to those meant to be receiving it—much greater investment needs to be made into researching and investing in relevant and effective accountability systems.^[38]

However, there is little clear consensus on the trade-offs between speed and control, especially in emergency situations when the humanitarian imperative of saving lives and alleviating suffering may conflict with the time and resources required to minimise corruption risks.^[38] Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have highlighted the need to tackle corruption with, but not limited to, the following methods:^[38]

1. Resist the pressure to spend aid rapidly.
2. Continue to invest in audit capacity, beyond simple paper trails;
3. Establish and verify the effectiveness of complaints mechanisms, paying close attention to local power structures, security and cultural factors hindering complaints;
4. Clearly explain the processes during the targeting and registration stages, highlighting points such as the fact that people should not make payments to be included, photocopy and read aloud any lists prepared by leaders or committees.

Positive effects of Aid in Africa:[edit]

Although aid has had some negative effects on the growth and development of most African countries, research shows that development aid, in particular, actually does have a strong and favorable effect on economic growth and development.^[1] Development aid has a positive effect on growth because it may actually promote long term economic growth and development through promoting investments in infrastructure and human capital.^[1] More evidence suggests that aid had indeed, had a positive effect on economic growth and development in most African countries. According to a study conducted among 36 sub-saharan African countries in 2013, 27 out of these 36 countries have experienced strong and favorable effects of aid on GDP and investments^[39], which is contrary to the believe that aid ineffective and does not lead to economic development in most African countries.

Research also shows that aid per capita supports economic growth for low income African countries such as Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia, while aid per capita does not have a significant effect on the economic growth of middle income African countries such as Botswana and Morocco.^[40] Aid is most beneficial to low income countries because of of such countries use aid received for to provide education and healthcare for citizens, which eventually improves economic growth in the long run.^[40]

Selecting Possible Articles[edit]

Articles for Area (Ghana):

1. Ghana
2. Education in Ghana
Vicentiagyau (talk) 19:33, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Articles for Sector (Education):

1. State School
2. Leadership Development

Vicentiagyau (talk) 09:08, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

3. Poverty reduction

Vicentiagyau (talk) 20:06, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Evaluating one article[edit]

Education in Ghana

This article is part of two wiki projects; WikiProject Education and WikiProject Ghana/Africa. The article was nominated for social sciences and society good article, however, it was unable to meet the criteria and was thus rejected. This article is rated C Class, High importance. Everything in this article is relevant and useful. There is a lot of background information and specific characteristics/features of the Ghanaian education system in this article. The article did not talk about private schools and institutions in Ghana and their contribution towards education in Ghana. This provides an avenue for further discussion and further learning, as I will have the opportunity to include it in the article and further the discourse relating to private education in Ghana. The article is generally fair, without any bias. It basically provides information on the Ghanaian educational system, how it operates and the various characteristics of education in Ghana. Most of the in-text citations work, however, some of the citations do not. One particular citation/reference led to a page that does not exist. Some of the links took a long time to load and open to the articles. Generally, the links supported the claims made in the article. Usually, the academic journal citations provided great evidence to support claims made in the article. Claims made were supported by both academic and online articles. There seemed to be more pdf and online sources than books. Most of these sources were fairly reliable and worthy of citation. There was also a lot of statistical sources cited. It would be good to add a Wikipedia link that lists the number of universities or tertiary in institutions in Ghana (List of universities in Ghana), just to add more information to the article. The conversations on the talk page are mostly about restructuring the article. One comment claimed that the article was messy and needed to be restructured and rearranged. Wikipedia does not allow for individual comments and thoughts about a subject, and this is different from my learning in GPP so far. GPP encourages me to critically think about issues and topics concerning development and make my own synthesis and conclusions, but Wikipedia articles do not encourage that.

Leadership development

This article is rated B-Class, and of Top-importance. It is part of the WikiProject Business. For further learning, including a section about leadership training in the education of elementary school students will open up a discourse about the role of leadership training in education and people will be able to learn more about how leadership training in education can lead to poverty alleviation. The article clearly mentions that some words and claims are vaguely phrased, indicating bias and or unverifiable information. In terms of citations and link, this article needs additional citations and verifiable sources to supports sentences and claims made in the article. Most of the sources are not credible enough and do not necessarily support the claims of sentences made. This article needs a lot of citations and needs to be supported by verifiable and credible sources. Most of the in-text citations work. There are a few citations, with links that work as well, but then again, most of the sources are not credible enough. It would be great to add a Wikipedia link that introduces the concept of leadership training in education, as a way of poverty reduction. There were only two comments on the talk page. One mentioned that the article was inconsistent and the other mentioned that the article was odd. Overall, the major problem with this article is that its citation and sources need to be improved tremendously and worked on. Again, just like I mentioned in the article for education, it is difficult for me to remain unbiased in my claims and present the many sides of an issue. GPP has taught me to be critical and make observations and comments about an issue, forming a strong argument and finding proof for an argument, so being unbiased on Wikipedia is difficult and different for me.

Vicentiagyau (talk) 23:26, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

Bibliography[edit]

SECTOR:

Global Partnership for Education

Francine Menashy (2016). "Understanding the roles of nonstate actors in global governance: evidence from the Global Partnership for Education". Journal of Education.

This article is a study that examines the role of nonstate actors, such as the Global Partnership for Education in international policy-making relating to global issues such as education. This article is relevant to my Wikipedia writing plans because it provides me with background information about the Global Partnership for Education initiative, which I can add to the history section of this Wikipedia article. It might also influence me to add another section about the role of nonstate actors in developmental policies, especially in developing countries.

Francine Menashy (May 2017). "The Limits of Multistakeholder Governance: The Case of the Global Partnership for Education and Private Schooling". Comparative Education Review.

This article, using the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) as a case study, analyses decision making among multi-stakeholder organizations and institutions, focusing on the issue of the absence of discussion about private education. This article is relevant because it provides me with background information about the founding of the GPE, what institutions existed before it and what GPE constitutes now, which I hope to add to the history section of this Wikipedia article.

Education NGOs

Miller-Grandvaux, Yolande; Welmond, Michel; Wolf, Joy (2002). "Evolving Partnerships: The Role of NGOs in Basic Education in Africa" (PDF). ERIC.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

This article is a study that aims to find out the roles of NGOs in education, and why there is an increasing involvement of NGOs in education. This article is relevant because it fits perfectly with my plans of introducing a new section talking about the role of NGOs in education, which is missing from the article.

Leadership development

Curt Brungardt (1996). "The Making of Leaders: A Review of the Research in Leadership Development and Education". The Journal of Leadership Studies.

This article talks seeks to address the question about if leaders are born or made, and how leaders are trained, developed or educated. This article is relevant because it provides me with information about how the role of education in leadership development, especially how important it is to incorporate leadership training and or education in education syllabus for primary school students, which is a section I want to add to the Wikipedia article.

AREA: Education in Ghana

Y. Nsiah Pepreah (2004). "Assessment of the role of private schools in the development of Education in Ghana. A study of the Kumasi Metropolis". Journal of Science and Technology.

This article accesses the role of private schools in Ghana. This article is important because it provides me with sources and evidence that enable me to create a new section on the Wikipedia article, where I want to talk about private schools in Ghana, and their contribution towards education in Ghana.

Sherry K. Amedorme, Yesuenyeagbe A.K. Fiagbe (June 2013). "Challenges Facing Technical And Vocational Education In Ghana" (PDF). INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH.

This article discusses the challenges facing education in Ghana, with a focus on the Training and Vocational institutions in Ghana. This article is important for my Wikipedia editing because it provided me with data and information about problems and challenges with technical and vocational education in Ghana, which I can add tot he section in the article that talks about technical and vocational training.

Summarizing and Synthesizing

Area:

Education in Ghana

This will be added to a new section I want to create; Private Institutions in Ghana.

The Ghanaian government cannot bear the costs in Education alone, thus private institutions and individuals build and operate private institutions to help the government deal with costs in education. The Ghanian government is incapable of providing increasing educational services. Education in Ghana has therefore become a shared effort by both the government and private institution, in order to make up for financial inefficiency, on the side of the government and make education accessible to all. There is a call for public-private partnership in education in most developing countries due to the growing involvement of private actors in education.

The structure of this joint effort by the public and private sectors to address the problem of financing education at the basic or elementary level is as follows:

Agency	Role
Public Sector:
Central Government	Responsible for remuneration of teachers who teach in public schools Responsible for the provision of free textbooks for pupils in public schools, from primary 1 to 6 Responsible for the provision of supplies nad equipment and tool needed for basic public schools
District Assemblies	Provide educational infrastructure
Private Sector:
Parents	Responsible for payment of textbook user fees for children at the Junior High School level Responsible for furniture, food, and transportation to and from school
Communities	Classroom maintenance and provision
Churches and NGOs	Provide basic school buildings and structure, furniture
Private Institutions/Individuals	Founding and managing private schools solely operated by founders, without any financial or infrastructural help from the government
International Organizations	Provide finanacial and technical assistance for basic education in Ghana

Private involvement in education has led to establishment of private schools and institutions which have had an impact on education in Ghana. Private primary and junior high schools in Ghana outnumber the public schools in Ghana. 74.7% of 779 primary and junior secondary schools were identified as private schools in a census conducted in the Ga district of Ghana, while the remaining 25.3% were identified as government or public schools. Over the past 20 years, private school attending students in developing countries, increased by 11%; from 11% to 22%.

This will be added to the "Adult education, non formal education" subheading section.

There is an informal education sector in Ghana, which is usually made up of which is usually made up of training, vocational, and technical institutions. These training, technical, and vocational institutions are informal because they do not take place in a classroom setting; these trainings usually take the form of apprenticeship, direct learning, practice, and supervision from trainers. There is usually no official or recognized certification or qualifications given to trainees.

Sector:

Education NGOs

I created an "Introduction" Heading

I also changed a subheading "World Citizenship to "The Impact of World Citizenship on NGOs"

I also moved the "General Roles of NGOs heading to the introduction.

The following was added to the "Introduction":

Non governmental organization (NGOs), can be defined as "formal organizations, and as such, they emerge when a group of people organize themselves into a social unit “that was established with the explicit objective of achieving certain ends and formulating rules to govern the relations among the members of the organization and the duties of each member” (Blau and Scott, 1970)".

The following was reworded:

Where education has been the role of the nation state, globalization has created new institutions including global regulatory organizations, global mass media and the aforementioned global flow of populations, which have contributed to the weakening of the nation state in education.

The following was added to the renamed heading "The Role of NGOs, Non-State Actors and Globalization in Education:

The governments of some African countries do not fully welcome the idea of NGOs contribution towards education; thus such governments tend to be constantly involved with activities of NGOs in the education sector. However, governments regulate the activities of NGO's based on their economic standing, "administrative standing" and "historical relationship" with NGO's. Instead of direct funding, government relationship between with NGOs and non state actors in education is focused on promotion of non state actors.

Generally, NGOs roles are related to problems of development in countries or areas with development problems. Below are a few of the roles (historic and modern) NGO's have as providers of education:

Role of NGOs in Education
Historic roles of NGOs in Education:
- Spread of western education, led by religious organizations in late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Played a key role in the inclusion of education development in international organization projects after the second world war
- Development of Education initiatives, outside state actors (1950s and 70s)
More recent roles of NGOs in Education:
- Provision of educational access to students without access to public/government education
- Advocacy for government to provide access to education for all
- Provision of non formal education
- Provision of support for small and rural schools

Vicentia's Peer Review

Area Feedback (Suggested Revisions):

"The Ghanaian government cannot bear the costs in of education alone, thus and individuals build and operate private institutions to help the government deal with address costs in education. Education in Ghana has, therefore, become a shared effort by both the government and private institutions, in order to make up for financial inefficiency, on the side of the government and make education accessible to all."

Notes for "subsection on the structure of the joint partnership between the private and public sectors in Ghana":

- Correct spelling on "Central Government"

- Delete extra spacing between "schools," and "from" in second column

- Correct spelling of "and" in "Responsible for the provision of supplies nad equipment"

- Correct spelling of "transportation" in "Responsible for furniture, food, and ransportation"

- Consider bolding, underlining, or somehow highlighting "Public sector:" and "Private sector:" to ensure that they each stand out as subheadings

Sector Feedback (Suggested Revisions):

Consider attributing a more "encyclopedic," neutral tone to this section:

"The governments of some African countries are not necessarily convinced by decline the idea of NGOs contributing towards educational efforts in their countries; thus, such governments they (governments) tend to be heavily constantly involved with activities of NGOs in the education sector. However, regulation of NGO governments in African countries either regulate or do not regulate the activities is often of NGO's based on the government's administrative governing activities of that government, its economic standing, its "administrative standing," and its "historical relationship" with NGO's. "

Nice work! FrancessO (talk) 07:14, 19 March 2018 (UTC)