adminRunyararo Nyandoro : Correspondent
In 2013, India entered into its 12th Five-Year Plan. The 12th Five-Year Plan has been dedicated to “faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth”. This 12th Plan came on the back of an 11th Plan themed “faster and more inclusive growth”. The 11th Plan had set measurable targets related to Millennium Development Goals. The Government targeted six actionable categories:i. Income and Poverty;
ii. Education;
iii. Health;
iv. Women and Children;
v. Infrastructure and
vi. The Environment
Under the umbrella of these major categories, the Government listed 27 targets.
Dr Nagesh Singh, an advisor to the Planning Commission, Government of India, reviews the five-year 11th Plan in relation to Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and finds that despite India’s impressive economic growth, the growth has not been inclusive. The government of India was for example, on course to achieve MDG 2 of universal primary education during the 2007-2012 periods, but fell short on most of the health related development goals.
Nonetheless there are lessons to be learnt from India’s Planning Commission.
After all, India did grow at an average of 8 percent during the period. Furthermore, this growth spread to crucial sectors such as agriculture.
To achieve such impressive growth, the Government established a clear vision that was broken down into actionable objectives.
Indeed, in the 12th Plan, that is the modus operandi of the Planning Commission of India.
The Government’s multi-dimensional objectives are reflected in 25 monitorable targets.
This approach to planning by the Commission is similar to that of the SMART method of setting objectives. The mnemonic acronym developed for management states that objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
Such an approach improves the chances of success of projects and appears to be appropriate even on a macroeconomic scale.
The process of fixing the 12th Plan targets and defining plan strategies was a consultative one.
The Government of India engaged amongst others, Ministries, economists, sociologists and sector experts. The plan is split into three volumes; volume I provides a general overview, volume II looks at key economic sectors and volume III identifies vital social sectors.
In volume II, priority economic sectors include, among others, agriculture, industry, energy, transport, and communication.
Agriculture, which accounted for an estimated 14 percent of India’s GDP in 2012, is prioritised because it provides the “main source of income for India’s rural population” and is therefore critical to inclusiveness, according to the plan.
In the 12th Plan, India targets 4 percent growth in this sector.
Diversification towards higher value crops and livestock, credit and market access as well as mechanisation are some of the identified drivers of growth for the smallholder farmers who typify the Indian agricultural landscape.
The plan progresses from an analysis of agriculture to industry.
Manufacturing accounts for around 16 percent of India’s GDP.
This figure, together with the fact that growth has stagnated in the sector, is of concern to the Indian Government.
The Planning Commission states that “unless manufacturing becomes an engine of growth, providing at least 70 million additional jobs, it will be difficult for India’s growth to be inclusive”.
The Government’s concern is heightened by a comparison of its sector/GDP ratio to that of other emerging economies.
China and Thailand have ratios of over 30 percent. To drive industry, India is looking to develop human resources, reform the business regulatory framework, ensure environmental sustainability within industry by mainstreaming green business, accelerate exports by building a brand image and creating manufacturing zones.
In volume III social sectors such as health and education are outlined.
The 12th Plan is India’s first step towards universal health care (UHC) to be financed by tax revenues and supplemented by partnerships with the private sector.
Within the Plan sin taxes are proposed by the Commission. The Plan also states outcome indicators for the process, for example, reducing the infant mortality rate (IMR) to 25 by 2017. The IMR at the end of the 11th Plan was 44 out of a thousand infants below 12 months old.
The aforementioned steps the Government plans to take within and across sectors during the five-year phase demonstrate what is required to manage inclusive growth and sustainable development.
The Indian case lends itself to Africa. The economic and social sectors the country is trying to uplift are identical to those most African nations need to concentrate on.
For this reason, India’s progression through the 12th phase will be interesting to observe and learn from.
In a rapidly integrating and increasingly interconnected world, African planners need not only to look to the East but to the rest of the world for opportunities, synergy and role models.
Europe’s “2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable, and Inclusive Growth” is thus worth noting.
The European Commission is pursuing smart growth which consists of becoming a digital society and an innovation union with better quality higher education.
In order to be sustainable, Europe plans to be resource efficient and implement industrial policy for green growth.
For growth to be inclusive, new skills and jobs and a fight against poverty are envisioned initiatives.
Before working towards Strategy 2020, the Commission identifies financial sector reform and budgetary consolidation as necessary to form a basis for Strategy 2020.
A SADC with a learning mindset can deploy the above two strategic thrusts simultaneously.
If a common currency and budgetary consolidation are good for Europe, and have been so for the USA, China and India, they should be better for SADC.
The challenge is for strategy to be “SMART” and resource efficient.
Online Reporter