Defining Development

Development may occur due to some deliberate action carried out by single agents or by some authority pre-ordered to achieve improvement, to favorable circumstances in both. Development in its basic definition means an event constituting a new stage in a changing situation or the process of change per se. If not qualified, development is implicitly intended as something positive or desirable (Lorenzo, 2011). Over the years, development has very rarely been considered as a “god-given” condition of socio-economic systems, implying that policy makers at national and international level need to undertake some specific activities or refrain from carrying out some kinds of activities to promote positive changes. However there have been different schools of thoughts relating to the means of achieving development as well as the true definition of positive outcomes or changes as the end to development. Development may be viewed in different aspects. First development may be viewed as a modernization process with emphasize on social change which is required to produce advancements, reform social and political processes to attain the status already attained by other developed states. In this sense then development is subjected to the activities that produce the desired outcomes that conform to some outlined status. Secondly development may be view as a process of attaining distributive social justice with improved access to basic needs for all. Emphasize is on access to primary goods by all. Thirdly development may be viewed as a product of production with emphasize on the means and the mode of production and the endogenous and exogenous factors impacting production processes. This approach to defining development challenges existing modes of international division of labor, categorization of nations into core and periphery and the impacts of the markets on the economies and welfare of developing nations. This approach assumes that concepts of self-reliance, dependence and freedom are often suppressed by the existing relations between developed and developing nations and the agents that reinforce these relations. Fourthly development may be viewed in the context of resource exploitation. Sustainable development recognizes the finite nature of resources and the need to have equality in access to resources between the current and the future generations. Lastly development may be defined in the context of the victims of development. Capability approach to development resonates with theories of justice and equality within the society. 

UNDERSTANDING HARROD-DOMAR LINEAR MODEL OF GROWTH

This model was developed as a solution for developed countries and international financial institutions to play a major role in the reconstruction of countries after the Second World War and the great depression first in Europe and later to the Asian, African and Latin American continents. The model emphasized on savings, investments, economic growth, and capital output. Further this model made use of the prevailing conditions in the 1940s where the war and the great depression had created major unemployment with many countries experiencing labor surplus.

Using this model, economic growth was a subject of savings and investment and therefore international financial institution were able to calculate the amount of capital injection required by developing countries to realize a particular level of growth. Further the model ruled out any prospects of development for developing countries in the absence of developed countries’ support and propagated the idea that borrowing for developing countries was the only way to development and that debt was a good thing.

Summary of the model

-          The model was based on the concept of savings and capital output.

-          It emphasized that labor in developing countries was in surplus but capital was limited and therefore countries had to find ways of enhancing savings to make use of the surplus labor in order to grow their economies

-          This model emerged after the second world due to the following factors

o   Numerous challenges facing developing countries and interest by developed countries to assist

o   The overwhelming surplus labor in developing countries due to the disruption of the wars and the great depression and the limited capital and savings requiring foreign aid and capital support from developed countries meaning developing countries cannot exist without developed countries (dependency)

o   USSR having developed through forced savings and investment provided a justification for the model

o   Marshall plan which entailed support to previously communist countries which provided an opportunity for western countries to micro manage the economies of developing countries

Critique

-       Savings does always translate to economic growth since saving may just be a confounding factor with other myriad of factors determining economic growth just as the political stability of the country. More so some countries such as Thailand recorded some substantial level of growth without any meaningful savings records.

-         The model is too linear and simplistic indicating that savings will translate to capital stock, which translate to investment translating to economic growth and capital output for sustained growth. However other factors such as technological progress now determine the pace of growth far more than savings alone.

-       Since mechanism in developing countries to manage savings are not in place or developed this model may only apply in developed countries only

-        The model does not differentiate between economic growth and economic development, assuming that economic growth will translate to economic development.

-    The model assumes that heavily borrowing will automatically translate to economic growth. however evidence has shown that developing countries characteristics of heavily borrowing end up with run-away debt and do not necessarily develop 

IS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER REALLY THAT BAD?

Transfer of Technology, knowledge and skills can be defined as the process through which technologies, innovations, skills and knowledge developed in one place or region or country or for a particular purpose is applied and exploited in another place for a similar or other purpose. Through technology transfer, the knowledge, innovations, facilities, or capabilities developed in one place is made available in other places.

Global Warming is the increase of the earth's average surface temperature due to the effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and organic activities etc which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. Global warming results into climate change although global warming itself represents only one aspect of climate change. Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. It includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer.

Currently transfer of technologies, knowledge and skills particularly from developed countries to developing countries occur through a number of different channels or modes. This includes; Trade in goods and services; All exports to different regions from a particular source may bear some potential for transmitting technological information and the movement of people especially workers from enterprises based on the technology rich countries to regions deprived of such technologies. Secondly such transfers may occur through foreign direct investment. As Multinational enterprises, transfer technological information to their subsidiaries in developing countries, some information or knowledge may leak to the host economies. Lastly transfer of technology may occur through direct trading between different regions through formal trading and licensing of such technologies.

Of interest to this paper is the interplays of transfer of technology and global warming therefore the mode of transfer of technologies, knowledge and skills of interest to this paper would be the transfer through foreign direct investments and the legal trading and licensing of technologies to consumer countries or regions. Often technology transfer in these two contexts may occur as a result of either market pull or technology push.  Market pull occurs where Multinational enterprises relocating within developing countries are in need of or demand of better or sophisticated technologies as compared to the host economies to enhance their production. Technology push on the other hand occurs where innovations or inventions are applied by Multinational enterprises to create new markets or consumer needs for their commodities either within developing countries or regions away from their mother countries.    

Economy forms the most important mode of organization of the society today, and economic growth virtually preoccupies every inhabitant of the modern society.  The global economy is currently hugely fueled by fossil fuels with alternative and saves sources of fuel such as wind and solar energy accounting for some negligible percentage of the global energy consumptions and remaining highly unsustainable for the global energy needs. There is a direct relationship between economic growth and global warming. Human activities such as combustion of Fossil Fuels, electricity generation, transportation, and heating, manufacture of cement etc result in the emission of huge quantities of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This enormous input of CO2 causes the atmospheric levels of CO2 to rise dramatically. The large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere as a result of human activities normally form a thermal blanket on the earth atmosphere, allowing the penetration of long wavelength rays from the sun to the earth surface but preventing the re-radiation of short wavelength rays into the atmosphere thereby trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm. The continued buildup of greenhouse gases and the trapping of the rays and their energies is causing the earth to warm in unprecedented manner with 1999, 2005, and 2013 been the hottest years recorded since 1850.

As indicated earlier, massive emissions of greenhouse gases form a thermal blanket restricting the penetration into the earth surface and re-radiation away from the earth atmosphere of the sun rays due the change in the wavelengths of the rays.  The magnitudes of emissions have greatly increased at the turn of the industrial revolution due to the numerous industrial activities taking place mainly within the current major developed economies.

The shift in the production sectors by the developed counties mainly from agricultural, to industrial and to service sectors accompanied by the exploitative nature of capitalism economies and the need for cheap labor and raw materials has lead to a major relocation of massive industries from industrialized economies to developing economies. Although to the optimists, the transfer of technology, knowledge and skills will normally give developing countries undue advantage in term of development as compared to the industrialized economies at their earlier stages of development in the late 1800 and at the turn of the 1900 who had to invent most of their technologies. However most of the profits earned through the industrial activities in developing countries by Multinational enterprises are relocated back to their mother countries. Such relocations have been made possible by the accompanying transfer of technologies, knowledge and skills mainly through foreign direct investments as evident by the numerous multinational corporations relocating to Africa. The relocation is further made possible by the available cheap labor and raw materials particularly land and natural resources. Technology, knowledge and skills transferred create an opportunity for massive exploitation of resources, massive production of goods and services, and massive emissions of green house gases. With fewer frontiers remaining uncolonized, and massive competition, the rate of exploitation of natural resource is and will continue to increase with an accompanying increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Destructive technologies from the north to the south will increase the rates of emissions by the developing countries causing the cumulative amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere to increase tremendously.      

The opposite of the coin as discussed earlier maybe rare but still a possibility where technology transfer may play a critical role in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases by African countries. According to international panel on climate change’s definition of technology transfer; technology transfer refers to a broad set of processes covering the flows of know-how, experience and equipment for mitigating and adapting to climate change amongst different stakeholders such as governments, private sector entities, financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and research/education institutions. This however will call for attainment of common goal by all actors globally and the transformation of the current destructive technologies into cleaners and more climate resilient technologies and their transfer to all countries including developing countries. However, underscoring the significant role of the economy in shaping the current global society, the key actors and the predominantly controlled development agendas of the African countries and their poverty status, such a mode of technology transfer in favor of sustainable development through reduction in greenhouse gases emissions where the agenda is championed by developing countries and less African countries who are the receipt of transferred technologies is not discernible.

Transfer of technologies, knowledge and skills are important in the growth of Africa economies but such growth will occur at the expensive of the environment. There are minimal opportunities where such transfers will result in reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases.

DOES AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH UTILIZATION AS A CHANCE IN AFRICAN?

Over the years, the role of knowledge in the betterment of the society has been an overarching theme. Knowledge can be defined as the capacity for action. The transformation of the prevailing structures of the society through knowledge constitutes the material basis and justification for designating modern society as knowledge societies (Caplain, 1976). Enormous thinkers in the 20^th century including Aristotle Plato, Sir Francis Bacon, Henri Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Max Weber contributed to the belief that the advancement of civilization was interwoven with the advancements in knowledge and its use (Caplain, 1976). Rich, (1979) notes that, a social contract evolved between the producers of knowledge and the society. Knowledge plays such an instrumental role in contemporary societies that, such societies have come to be known as knowledge societies (Caplain, 1976).

According to Rogers, (1995) knowledge creation and diffusion can be traced back to the European beginnings of social science with Gabriel Tarde’s laws of Imitation and early anthropologists known as the British, German-Austrian diffusionists. Backer, (1994) argues that, the roots of knowledge utilization can be traced from the ancient Greeks.  In America, knowledge dissemination and utilization can be traced back to the 1920’s with studies such as the diffusion of agricultural innovations to farmers and the spreading of new teaching ideas among schools. According to Rich, (1979), the increased funding of knowledge diffusion and utilization by the American government was as a result of recognition by the policy makers that innovation dissemination could contribute to higher rate of economic growth. Further, various institutions especially private institutions were interested in rapidly increasing adoption and extension of their technologies, practices and findings.

The rationale of research is to enlarge frontiers of knowledge and contribute significantly to human development (Oduwaiye, et al 2009). According to Court and Young, (2006) research is an indispensable tool that contributes to improvement in the quality of debates in the society through establishing general principles, concepts and identification of problems based on sound argument to guide the development process. Besides, research is important in the solving of concrete problems by providing concrete solutions.  

Research no matter how innovative it is, will not make a difference in the lives of the target community unless it is disseminated and utilized in an appropriate and timely manner. Dissemination of research is an important component of the research process. Once knowledge has been created, the next logical step in the information transfer process is it’s dissemination to relevant consumers. According to Lovell, (1971) dissemination can be conceptualized as getting the findings or new ideas out into the public domain, mainly through avenues such as publications, professional journals among others. According to Rogers, (1995) dissemination is the process by which an idea or innovation or finding is communicated through certain channels overtime among members of a social system, while utilization is the process that aims at increasing the employment of knowledge to solve problems and improve the quality of life. According to Burns, (2005) research utilization refers to the process of synthesizing and using research findings in order to make an impact on or a change in the existing practices within the society. Utilization of research results to a considerable extent depends on proper dissemination of the findings to the relevant consumers.

Backer, (1994) elaborates the concept of knowledge dissemination and utilization as encompassing the following facets; knowledge transfer and utilization, technology transfer, sociology of knowledge, organizational change, policy development and interpersonal and mass communication. Knowledge utilization cuts across different disciplines and specialties. Marshall and Rossman, (1989) explains that, dissemination of research results should be comprehensive and capable of being interpreted and used by the target consumers. More often, consumers complain of the technical language and analogies used to convey messages by researcher. Therefore dissemination of research results should be guided by the following questions; why should the targeted consumers get the research outcomes? What will they make from the research results? And, how will the research products improve the living standards of the consumers?

According to the African development Bank, (2011) there exists a wide gap between producers and consumers of knowledge; Research can have an enormous impact on development initiatives than it has to date. The effectiveness of translation of research findings to practice has been shrouded in mystery, with researchers as knowledge producers being unable to understand the failure despite clear and convincing academic dissemination avenues. In addition, development practitioners as knowledge consumers bemoan the inability of researchers to make their findings accessible to and digestible by consumers in good time. World Bank, (2010) notes that, most research undertakings don’t begin with identification of key knowledge gaps facing development practitioners, but rather researchers seek questions they can answer with the current methodologies as the basis of their research. Research should be based on a strategic approach that is firmly anchored on key knowledge gaps for development. Existing development gaps should inform the research agenda and not the researcher’s disciplinary background or the favoritism of methodologies.

Over the years, ample research has been undertaken focusing on understanding the institutional based barriers to utilization of research findings. According to Rich, (1979) the breakdown in ‘research - practice path’ may be explained by a number of factors which includes; limited time and money allocated to dissemination of research, limited dissemination channels, researchers lack the language or skills to present their findings to the communities, and besides research consumers must wait until the research findings get published in journals or seminars, which they may or may not access. More often there are numerous delays in publications of research findings with some research institutions reluctant to publish their work. Furthermore, there is massive quantity of data produced through research which makes it difficult for the consumers to stay on top of the latest findings. The prevailing academic culture which appreciates academic based activities more than community involvement which is viewed as done by the ‘so not good enough’ academicians also inhibits research utilization. Often community members view themselves as research subjects who seldom share in the benefit of research proceedings. On the other hand, researchers may intend to share their findings with community members, but the structures of research institutions make it difficult or untenable to do so. The funding institutions further rarely include requirements for dissemination in their call for proposals. In addition, careers of researcher and academicians are based on academically oriented dissemination venues such as peer reviewed publications on journals with little attention on community forums (Caplan, 1979). According to Duarte and Rice, (1992) Cultural differences may heavily impact on the way in which the potential consumers interact with and perceive research results. Such cultural differences may include; family boundaries, importance of religion, meaning of education and work, decision making styles, local beliefs and response to change. These cultural differences can be clustered in relation to the context, space, time, information flow, local norms and rules. Glaser and Taylor, (1971) posits that, culture places a major influence on the individual, collective groupings as well as the interactions between groups. There has been major emphasizes on, inter-group cultural differences and less insight on intra-group cultural differences. For example, considering rural communities in Kenya it would be fallacious to assume that all the community members prefer to access information from friends ignoring the members who prefer social media and other channels.

IFAD, (2012) posits that poverty remains significant in the past decades in Africa, East Asia and Latin America, despite significant progress made in other parts of the world. At least 70 per cent of the world’s very poor people live in the rural areas and a large proportion of these poor and hungry populations are children and young people. The population of the less developed countries is still more rural than urban with some 3.1 billion people or 55 (%) of the total population still living in rural areas. Nevertheless, with better utilization of agricultural research findings to inform development policies and practices, it’s possible to save lives, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of people in the above regions (Court and Young, 2006). As indicted by ADB, (2011) agriculture supports the livelihoods of over two thirds of the regions’ poor and is the main economic mover in the developing countries. The value of agricultural research can only be measured in terms of its contribution to solutions of the farmer and the overall community. It is not enough to do research, and obtain results; the research results developed must rapidly be transferred to farmers, fields and be adopted.

Improvements in agricultural technology will continue to play a critical role in improving the welfare of rural communities and the general economy of countries especially in African. Given that, economic growth is the best remedy for poverty and that only a handful of countries have managed to attain economic growth without emphasis on agricultural growth, it follows that agriculture is a principal tool in the development of these countries. Cumulatively, agriculture benefits; rural and urban poor through provision of food as well as raw materials for industries, frees foreign currency for the purchase of capital assets, provides markets for industrial sector, reduces poverty through provision of employment and primary food commodities especially to the rural communities. High and sustained growth in agriculture is vital for African countries to accelerate poverty reduction. This is because agriculture has a powerful leverage effect on all the sectors of the economy especially countries within the early stages of development (FARA, 2006).

According to the World Bank, (2010) investments in agricultural research and knowledge generation constitute numerous strategies adopted to promote sustainable and equitable agricultural development in most of the African countries over the years. The focus on agricultural investment has gone through various transformations over the years. In the 1980s, agricultural research focused on strengthening the research supply systems at both the international and national levels. In the 1990s, the focus shifted to improving the links between research, education and the extension services and identification of farmers’ needs to inform the research process. The similarity between the two approaches was that, the link between researchers and research consumers remained linear with research knowledge being generated for extension officers who were expected to transfer new technologies and innovations to the farmers at the rural levels. However, the focus has recently changed with the realization that supply and demand for knowledge is far more complex than envisaged in the linear approaches. Research dissemination approaches involving many stakeholders are currently been appreciated as more effective in speeding the use of research knowledge for income generation by research consumers. The newer approaches emphasize on the totality of the interactions between stakeholders needed to encourage the utilization of research outputs.

Research coupled with appropriate supportive policies and effective dissemination and utilization can immensely contribute to improving the quality of life and ensuring harmonious functioning of the research to practice system. The key parts or structures of the ‘research - practice system’ includes; research undertaking to produce relevant results, supportive facilitative policy frameworks and the research consumers. Each of these units has their own distinct functions which are interdependent and wholly contribute to improved welfare. To ensure research utilization, there is a need to harmonize the functions of the different parts of the system (researchers, policy makers and consumers).
According to FARA, (2006) experiences from across Africa indicate that the effectiveness of agricultural technology generation and utilization depends largely on the relevance and responsiveness to farmer’s needs. It’s currently observed that, the needs of farmers’ do not sufficiently drive the orientation of agricultural research and extension of the findings: a fact that reduces the relevance and impact of agricultural research. Often community members view themselves as research subjects who rarely share in the benefit of research proceedings. In some instances, researchers may intend to share their findings with community members, but the structures of their research institutions make it difficult or untenable. The funding institutions further, rarely include requirements for dissemination in their call for proposals and also the careers of researchers and academicians is based on academically oriented dissemination venues such as; peer reviewed publications or journals with little attention on community forums.   

Africa, her natural resources and under-development

The abundance of natural resources in Africa has been at the heart of many debates, especially in relation to the level of development in the region compared with other parts of the world. Africa is endowed with both a great volume and variety of natural resources. Indeed, the variety of natural resources to be found in Africa is perhaps far greater than on any other continent. It ranks first in chromium, cobalt, diamond, gold and vanadium reserves and production, among others. In spite of this favorable context, most African mineral resource rich countries have so far failed to harness the full potential of the resource boom to spur their economic growth and development. The value of Africa’s natural resources – valued in the trillions of dollars – dwarf other sources of capital such as remittances and aid. From laptops to cell phones, cars to airplanes, all kinds of everyday products are made using minerals from Africa. It is not an exaggeration to say that the world depends on Africa's natural resources. Africa’s natural resources have been the bedrock of the world’s economy and continue to represent a significant development opportunity for the global market.  

Since the colonial period, African economies have either deteriorated or stagnated with detrimental efforts on the Africans.  In comparison to other continents the African economic development progression has been marginal relative to other resource-rich countries across the globe. The history of resource extraction in Africa and in particular during the colonial period and the subsequent governments highly informed by the fading colonial influences is substantially a history of plunder. Too often, African resources have become a burden for the countries that harbor them, a curse rather than a blessing, a blockage to development instead of a source of finance to foster sustainable development. In Africa, raw materials resources frequently go hand in hand with social and military conflicts, internal and international warfare, environmental degradation, evictions and weak or non-functioning state institutions.

The global economy in the manner of transnational raw materials corporations has played significant roles in plundering the economy of Africa. Often with the consent of host governments this corporations have managed to sign favorable agreements which reduce tax obligations and limit the royalties to the state at the same time having local corrupt elites transfer large sums abroad to tax havens and secret accounts. The corporations do not act in isolation; they are part and parcel of wide-ranging attempts to secure the flow of raw materials from Africa to the European Union and to the US.

The key concept in mobilization of resources for development within Africa lies with the shift in the balance in terms of the ownership and exploitation of resources and introduction of fair practices solely influenced by self centered African market policies to ensure the market and in particular the global economy does not take advantage of Africa to fuel its economy. Critique of the modes of accumulation of resources and exploitation for production should be a discipline for all Africa leaders with emphasize on strong African institutions not dependent on the international community which functions solely for the benefit of Africa. Delinking of the Africa economy from the international market is an impossible move and maybe unthinkable in certain quotas but may be the only way, Africa will mobilize its resources adequate enough to spur its stagnant economy. The challenge for the African continent is how to govern and harness the rich pool of natural resources to achieve a broad-based growth. African governments need to take strong action to implement concrete measures to ensure that their countries and their populations benefit from natural resource extraction.

PATRIARCHY, CAPITALISM AND GENDER OPPRESSION

Gender and Development

According to the United Nations Development Programme is denoted by long and healthy lives, been knowledgeable, having access to resources needed for a decent standard of living and to participate in the life of the community.

The food and agricultural organization defines gender as the relations between men and women both perceptual and material. Gender roles are the social definition of men and women and vary from one society to another society. Gender is not determined biologically but rather it’s socially constructed. Social category of gender has been and continues to be the most fundamental way in which distinctions are made among the people. Society itself has an objective existence and it thus strongly influences human behavior.

Gender and development connotes the improvement in the welfare state and the relations between men and women. There is no development where one gender and in particular males are benefiting through exploitation of the other gender. Although societal roles have historically been divided among the males and the females, but based on the rules of natural justice; development should focus on the equal participation of both genders in production resulting in cumulative and quantitative increase in productivity which is accompanied by fair distribution of the gains of production among the two genders.

Gender and exploitation – patriarchy and capitalism

Societies have historically been organized under specific modes such as feudalism, or capitalism. Social change occurs because of structural change. Economic structure itself contains dynamics that push history along. Such changes justify, legitimize and propagated gender disparity over subsequent years. Gender is a development issue especially with the advent of the private ownership of production and the disbandment of the communal lifestyles.

In hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies, there was a sexual division of labor with rigidly defined sets of responsibilities for women and men. Women in pre-class societies were able to combine motherhood and productive labor. In fact there was no strict demarcation between the reproductive and productive spheres. This was so because women were central to production and there were predetermined roles for both sexes in these pre-class societies, therefore systematic inequality between the sexes was non-existent. Furthermore, reproduction and production were not viewed in the context of labor and its commodification concept in the subsequent regimes and in particular capitalism.

As production shifted away from the household, the role of reproduction changed substantially. The shift toward agricultural production sharply increased the productivity of labor. This, in turn, increased the demand for labor with resulting increase in the number of workers and higher surplus. Thus, unlike hunter-gatherer societies, which sought to limit the number of offspring, agricultural societies sought to maximize women’s reproductive potential, so that the family would have more children to help out in the fields. Therefore, at the same time that men were playing an increasingly exclusive role in production, women were required to play a much more central role in reproduction.

The advent of the private property transformed the relations between men and women within the household because it radically changed the political and economic relations in the larger society. According to Engels the new wealth in domesticated animals meant that there was a surplus of goods available for exchange between productive units. With time, production by men specifically for exchange purposes developed, expanded, and came to overshadow the household’s production for use. As production of exchange eclipsed production for use, it changed the nature of the household, the significance of women’s work within it, and consequently women’s position in society.

Patriarchy and capitalism work together to maintain the oppression of women. Capitalism requires a group that controls the means of production as well as a group that is exploited. This basic social relationship is what allows capitalist to create profit. It is in the best interest of both public and private institutions to exploit the labor of women as an inexpensive method of supporting a work force. For the producers, this means higher profits. Patriarchy on the other hand, consists of both men who control the means of production and profit; and women who provide cheap and often free labor. Much of what women do often is done for free for example no wages are paid for the wife’s domestic labor constituting the unpaid labor force in capitalism. Paying women for carrying children and domestic work would significantly reduce profit margins and the capitalist’s ability to accumulate capital. Man’s ability to devote his time entirely to a job or career is dependent upon the woman’s exploitation. When women are allowed in the work force, they tend to be kept in menial positions or given lower wages for the same work as men because of the importance of women’s cheap and free labor to the capitalist system, elite formulate and preach a patriarchic ideology that gives a society a basis for believing in the rightness of women’s primary call to child bearing and domestic labor. Elite men also use their structural and legislatives power to disadvantage women’s fair work force participation. The greater the workforce participation of women particularly in high paying jobs, the less the structure of inequality is able to be maintained.

Resources are critical for development and the people controlling the allocation and utilization of resources control to a bigger extend the output of production. According to Engels (1884), the shift from feudalism to private ownership of land had a huge effect on the status of women. In a private ownership system, individuals who do not own land or other means of production are in a situation that Engels compares to enslavement - they must work for the owners of the land in order to be able to live within the system of private ownership. Much of land as the chief factor of production in Africa is under the control of men thereby disadvantaging women.  

Women's subordination is not a result of her biological disposition but of social relations, and man’s efforts to achieve their demands for control of women's labor and sexual faculties. Women's subordination is a function of class oppression, maintained because it serves the interests of capital and the ruling class; it divides men against women, privileges working class men relatively within the capitalist system in order to secure their support; and legitimates the capitalist class's refusal to pay for the domestic labor assigned, unpaid, to women. Every structural system is sustained through legitimization and in the context of women, oppression has been legitimized though cultural practices and laws in the modern society and institutionalized in the nuclear family. 

Measured in the dimensions of improving the welfare state of the people through sustained quantitative growth in the economy, development should result in better working conditions and fair distribution of the gains of production to both genders. The concept of gender disparity has found its way into Africa through the ‘exporting of capitalism’ and leveraging on the existing ‘innocent’ African socio-cultural customs. According to Engels describe the bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production and this is a fairly accurate portrayal of how capitalism, often through colonialism, has managed to successfully exploit the female workforce. Through colonialism, capitalism has managed to spread to indigenous and previously autonomous societies and inflict a capitalist mode of production upon the men and women living in these regions. Before the arrival of the colonialists and subsequent arrival of capitalism, women and men often had set traditional roles to play in society, but the significant economic change has led in many circumstances to a dramatic shift in gender roles and relations. While men are often expected to contribute more significantly to the economy at large, women have been given the responsibility to directly provide for the family, thereby contributing both financially and domestically. Women in these societies’ indigenous societies begin to be seen as a source labor for production. Besides women labor is more appealing to capitalism because; the labor is cheaper to employ compared to the male counterparts, women have greater patient when it comes to tedious work, work under poor working conditions and are less likely to agitate for unionization.

Further capitalism has innovated ways of increasing accessibility to women labor through adoption of various measures including; inadequate childcare and increased cost of living, demanding domestic and financial responsibilities, dependency on employers and husbands. These factors contribute to the vulnerability of women putting them in a situation where they must provide labor to the market. Technology on the other hand has advanced so that the time spent on household chores, like laundry, has been reduced, fast-food restaurants have made it possible for women to spend less time cooking, public schooling means that the time women spend on childrearing is greatly reduced from the days when they barely left the home

Conclusion

Since the gains of development are not a preserve of men and the capitalist in the society, for the realization of equality in the achievement of development goals; radical restructuring of the current capitalist economy and patriarchal systems, in which participation of women in production is highly regulated and much of women's labor is uncompensated must be enforced in the society and particularly in Africa to liberate women and have them equally contributing to the development process and fairly sharing in the gains of production in order to improve their living standards both at the work place and also in the nuclear family.