SAMBALASUN.COM

Click on the images above to enlarge

SOCIAL, POLITICAL & ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

 

The Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1460. Over the centuries, African blood (originally brought in under slavery) mixed with the blood of the Portuguese, and to a lesser extent with English and French, to create a Cape Verdean people. In 1975, after more than five hundred years of union, the Cape Verdean people were given Independence from Portugal. However, government control then passed to the 'Partido Africano de Independencia de Cabo Verde’ (PAICV) under a single-party, Leftist regime, and remained so for the next sixteen years up until 1991, when the newly-formed political party, the 'Movimento para a Democracia' (MPD), won the first multiparty democratic national election. A further democratic election in 1996 returned the MPD to power, however, in 2001, a much-transformed PAICV was elected back into government after 10 years in Opposition. The next national election is due in January 2006.

Cape Verde is a socially and politically stable country with all political parties (whether in Government or in Opposition) supporting macroeconomic and reform policies recommended by the IMF and the World Bank. Thus, policies are followed to take control of public spending, reduce domestic debt, privatise parastatal companies and improve social services. All political parties are very keen to attract foreign private investment, particularly into the development of the tourism sector as well as light-manufacturing, transhipment and fishing sectors. More than this, since 1998, the exchange value of the Cape Verde Escudo has been pegged, firstly to the Portuguese Escudo and subsequently, tacitly, to the Euro ( 1Euro = 110.265CVEsc ) therefore requiring the following of the Eurozone’s macroeconomic criteria. Consequently, over the last 5 years, average annual inflation has been contained below 1.5% with less than 1% inflation predicted for 2004 (1999 2.9%, 2000 -2.4%; 2001 3.7%; 2002 1.9%; 2003 1.2%). The budget deficit has been held to between 2% and 3% with an average growth in real GDP of around 6% per year (2003 7%; 2004 predicted 5%). GDP per capita is approximately US$1,500 with a population inhabiting the Islands of about 450,000.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, in 2003, Cape Verde was a middle-income country, with the fourth highest Human Development Index (which takes into account various factors, such as GDP per capita, life expectancy, adult literacy, education etc) of all African nations behind only the Seychelles, Mauritius and Tunisia.

The Economist Intelligence Unit Country Profile for Cape Verde of 2003 reports "Since independence there has been no significant incident of civil unrest in Cape Verde, and changes of government have occurred peacefully. The army has never taken an active role in politics [the armed forces of Cape Verde total only 1100]. The geographical isolation of the Islands means that conflicts in the West African region have negligible impact. Violent crime is not common. The justice system and local institutions are relatively strong by the standards of most African countries and corruption, whilst not unknown, is not a preoccupying concern."