SA is a country with many challenges. The ANC, as the governing party, has distilled the country's main challenges in squarely economic terms as the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
These are measures of economic access and participation that have become a common frame for focusing our national efforts on economic development.
The problem, however, with centring economic development as the primary goal toward a developing society is that it limits our imagination of progress to value, in terms of rands and sense, not leaving much room for developing a shared understanding of the values, the motivations, ethics and ethos that we agree will foster a better society.
Chasing value (money) without values leads to a society that lauds the making of money at any cost, even if that cost is human life or dignity itself. As a country whose history is littered with colonial pillage, bloody land grabs, apartheid’s racist-inspired oppression, all for economic gains of a few, surely SA cannot continue down a path of profits above all else?
Our economy, both in its inputs and outputs, should not be values-free but inherently and intentionally consider the impacts our economic activities have on people’s wellbeing and the development of a functional society. Ultimately, the purpose of an economy is not simply wealth accumulation, but human development.
As SA celebrates Heritage Day on September 24, as this era of South Africans in history, we should contemplate what common values we would like history to remember us by and what economy will evidence the heritage we leave for future generations.
Let us consider what an economy that based on values, centres people and intentionally embraces heritage and culture as part of its inputs and outcomes might look like, through the example of Thailand. Thailand is a South East Asian country that is home to 70-million people. With less than 2% unemployment, they are still battling with poverty reduction, with 7% of people living below the poverty line.
Even with a Gini co-efficient that shows that its inequality levels are half those of SA, the Thai people and government see reducing inequality as an ongoing goal. Economic indicators for not an end unto themselves for the Thai people. The genesis of their most recent upward economic growth in the past two decades is the result of an economic plan to meet a human rights imperative through a locally values-driven approach.
This is exemplified most by Thailand’s "Kitchen of the World" policy, adopted in the early 2000s. The policy is derived from the idea that no Thai person should be hungry. Food should be accessible to all people regardless of their socioeconomic means. What resulted was a policy to catalyse food production in the country to both meet this demand-based objective and increase economic participation, sustainable livelihoods and increased GDP.
According to the vision set out in this policy is food survival, livelihood and local development. The strategy involved taking existing elements of Thai culture and practices like their unique food tastes, subsistence agriculture and collectivist community culture. These traits were valued through a new lens. A food value chain was conceived by the state.
The One Tambon (district), One product (OTOP) model was adopted that saw the state support every village in the aggregated production of one agricultural product. This includes infrastructure, funding and regulations enabling cooperatives to thrive. It expanded to linking local production to logistics values chains and supported cities to be drives of agro processing with a focus on technology education in the food sector. It is no accident that Thai food is known the world over.
From the mass export of primary food products to the distribution of packaged Thai food into the Asian region and expansion of Thai food outlets around the world, Thailand has successfully established itself as a food market. While previously only well known for its tourism, which is another heritage and value-infused industry, production, manufacturing and exports have dramatically taken over as leading Thailand’s economic drivers. The OTPT model has been expanded into other goods like fabric manufacture and electronics.
Thailand’s main economic sectors and drivers are based on their cultural experiences and values. The economy draws from the unique and local strengths, rather than responding crudely to external market demands. Its economic ethos is tied into the wellbeing of its people and the opportunities to value life-making activities as economic assets.
It is an economy that truly centres people over profits and still has been very profitable for many people. The lessons for SA abound. We are a diverse country with rich and varied heritage, cultures, practices and traditions that could be leveraged for our shared economic success. Instead, many of the natural human and natural resources are not our focus in economic development.
Our manufacturing sector is propped up by German cars, our retail is bolstered by imported brands and our agriculture, like our land, is concentrated in the hands of a few and commercialised to the benefit of an exclusionary albeit dominant financial sector. Meanwhile, local manufacturing is stifled, arts and culture is treated like a hobby and our township food cultures are gentrified in Sandton.
Until we see value in ourselves, our cultures, in the people in this nation and create an economy that derives from what we uniquely offer the world, SA will remain a country waiting for an economic miracle. Waiting for the world to value us, when we scarcely value ourselves.
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