"Africa Needs A RyanAir"

Paul Collier and Stephen O' Connell wanted to know if being landlocked automatically became a trap for developing nations. Their research suggests that while the situation is not ideal, being landlocked is not necessarily a trap for a developing nation.**

Fortunately, landlocked, resource-scarce countries are not the norm. Countries in this position who are also surrounded by "bad" neighbors (the 3rd trap) are unfortunately unable to do much of anything about their situations; landlocked, resource-rich countries with bad neighbors have options.

One defining feature of the problem of landlocked nations is that development aid is given on a country rather than regional basis. In that case, what benefit is there for Kenya or Tanzania to build roads that will help Ugandans get their products to port to be sold in Europe? Would the Kenyan government be willing to spend its development $$$ on that project to the detriment of their own projects? (Collier calls these types of neighborhood improvement projects "public goods" and notes that this means that they involve sacrifices that many nations are unwilling to make). To the north, Uganda is blocked by Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. If these countries were not on the verge of collapse or in the midst of a crippling genocide, would they use their development $$$ to improve travelling conditions for Ugandan exporters? To the East, crossing Zaire, Congo and Gabon (or Angola) would prove costly and dangerous. What then, can landlocked, but resource-rich Uganda do?

Their response to this dilemma determines whether they fall into the trap or manage to avoid it. Collier gives a number of solutions to this problem including working with neighboring countries to improve security, working with neighboring countries to improve infrastructure and trying to attract aid that will help the region.

Collier concedes that some of these issues are out of the hands of the government (what can Uganda do about the situations in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Angola or the CAR?), but he contends that a well-managed government can find solutions and notes that Uganda has done an admirable job of sustaining its growth over the past decade.

Two important technologies can be be highly beneficial to resource-rich, landlocked countries with bad neighbors; aviation and the Internet.

If (and that is a very big if, if you ask me) a country is able to manage its resources and exploit the benefits of air travel and global Internet connectivity, that nation has an excellent chance of avoiding the trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors.

**Read Collier and O'Connell's research under "knowledge" section**