Through outlining historical and macro-economic background in African development and looking at structural transformation that has taken place on the continent, implications for policymaking and implementation are offered.
3. Context
• The Economist (11 May 2000): Hopeless Africa
• The Independent (15 July 2009): Africa – the lost continent
• The Economist (3 December 2011): The hopeful continent – Africa rising
• A recent Afrobarometer survey suggests: ‘despite high reported growth
rates, lived poverty at the grassroots remains little changed’ (Dulani et
al. 2013)
– Others even question the growth revival referring to poor data
4. Questions
• What is really happening?
• What is going on at country level?
• Can one make sense of it all?
• Which are the policy implications?
6. Brief historical points
• Independence in the 1960s
• Enthusiasm and progress
• Import substitution and high international borrowing
• The oil crises of the 1970s
• The international debt crisis
• Structural adjustment in the 1980s (“getting prices right”)
14. But the poverty challenge remains significant
• Population of SSA doubled from 0.5 billion in 1990 to about 1 billion in
2013
• Number of people in absolute poverty increased from 278 million in
1990 to 390 million in 2013
• Seen against a poverty line of 3.10 dollar head count ratio only fell from
74% in 1990 to 65% in 2013
19. The basic story
• People leaving agriculture – but no productivity
increase
• De-industrialization – too few jobs being created
• Low productivity services and informal sector
growing (vulnerable employment)
21. Major challenges
• Global demographic projections (2015-2050): from 7.3 to 9.7 billion, and Africa’s population is
set to double to 2.5 billion (bigger than both China and India and Nigeria bigger than US)
• Structural transformation slow
• Jobs and employment creation lagging
• Agriculture and industrialization constrained
• Infrastructure and technology
• Climate change looming
• Many potential, but every reason to push decisively forward in African development over the
next 15-20 years (remembering T x G = 69)
• Trickle down alone will not do the trick – see the ”Stockholm Statement”
22. UN High-Level Panel report on the post-
2015 development agenda
• Called for:
• “..A quantum leap forward in economic opportunities
and a profound economic transformation to end
extreme poverty and improve livelihoods…”
• What will it take?
27. UNU-WIDER research output
• Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Oxford University Press, edited by Channing Arndt, Andy McKay and Finn Tarp
• Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries: Oxford University Press, edited by Channing Arndt and Finn Tarp
• Made in Africa: The Brookings Press, by Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, and Finn Tarp
• Manufacturing Transformation: Comparative Studies of Industrial Development in Africa and Emerging Asia: Oxford University
Press, edited by Carol Newman, John Page, John Rand, Abebe Shimeles, Måns Söderbom, and Finn Tarp
• Africa’s Lions: The Brookings Press, edited by Haroon Bhorat and Finn Tarp
• Beating the Odds: Jumpstarting and Sustaining Inclusive Structural Transformation: Princeton University Press, by Celestin
Monga and Justin Lin (see also Justin Lin’s WIDER Annual Lecture)
• Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action: Oxford University Press, by Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett, and Michael
Woolcock, (see also Pritchett’s WIDER Annual Lecture)
• The Practice of Industrial Policy: Business Coordination in Africa and East Asia: Oxford University Press, edited by John Page and
Finn Tarp
• Growth, Structural Transformation and Rural Change in Vietnam: A Rising Dragon on the Move: Oxford University Press, edited
by Finn Tarp
• Growth, Employment, and Poverty in Latin America: Oxford University Press, edited by Garry Fields et al.
• A LOT MORE: see https://www.wider.unu.edu/publications and https://www.wider.unu.edu/ including a series of special
issues of journals and stand alone articles
Donor efforts in the social sectors have been highly successful – especially in the areas of health and education.
However, for the movement of labour from the agricultural sector to the non-farm economy donors need to be more closely involved in the agricultural and industrial policies.