Military Spending and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Supply-Side Analysis

Development theory proposes that physical and financial resources as well as organizational capabilities play a significant role in the determination of economic development. In sub-Saharan countries, a substantial proportion of these resources are allocated to the military sector. Apart from high defense budgets, the sector also attracts a high proportion of highly skilled scientific, technological, managerial, and administrative manpower. Since highly skilled manpower is scarce in sub-Saharan Africa, it is a critical factor in the deteiniination of the absorptive capacity of these economies. Although the cost of anarchy and destruction, or even the economic and psychological implications of total subjugation, cannot be overestimated, it could be argued that a more urgent war which must be won in sub-Saharan Africa today is the war against hunger, ignorance, and disease. According to Sivard (1989), an African is 22 times more likely to die of a poverty-related disease than to die of a war-related cause. Yet most sub-Saharan African countries spend more per capita on military expenditure than to prevent hunger or disease.