The Constantine Plan’s achievements masked severe shortfalls in jobs and land distribution

Evidence

The visit of Premier Debré on 3 October, to celebrate the second anniversary of the Plan, furnished an occasion to survey its achievements. The agricultural programme of constructing “a thousand villages” had been virtually completed, and arable production had been augmented from 270,000 tonnes to 390,000 in one year. Over the same period industrial output had risen by ten per cent; the 400th new enterprise had just been launched; 100 milliard francs had already been invested, while a further 400 milliard were budgeted for 1961. As far as education was concerned, the number of pupils in primary schools had increased from 650,000 in 1958 to nearly a million in 1960, an improvement of well over fifty per cent. So much for the credit side of the balance. But more than half of all Algerian children still did not attend school, and technical education was paralysed for want of skilled personnel. Technicians in the new industries were equally lacking and, for all the vast efforts made, only 28,000 new jobs had actually been created — compared with the target of 400,000. In land redistribution the original target of 250,000 hectares to be shared out among 15,000 families (there were in fact an estimated 600,000 needing land) had been revised drastically downwards to 41,000 hectares to be shared among a paltry 1,800 families. Although forty-five per cent of the investment funds for 1961 would come from government sources, little more than a quarter of the remainder was forthcoming from pied noir enterprises — justly apprehensive about the future. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1284

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s goal of tracing the colonial welfare/development strategy as an extension of French revolutionary-progressive ideology applied in Algeria. — connects to: The Constantine Plan produced measurable Algerian economic and educational gains.; The Constantine Plan’s achievements fell far short of its targets.; The Constantine Plan’s real achievements were dwarfed by its unmet job and land targets (+2 more)

Related

• The Constantine Plan’s real achievements were dwarfed by its unmet job and land targets (similarity 0.97)
• The Constantine Plan’s achievements fell far short of its targets. (similarity 0.97)
• The Constantine Plan produced measurable Algerian economic and educational gains. (similarity 0.93)
• The Constantine Plan made unprecedented economic investment in Algeria (similarity 0.84)
• The Constantine Plan proposed deep economic integration of Algeria with France (similarity 0.81)
• France made substantial material and infrastructural improvements in Algeria (similarity 0.78)