Good Growth and Governance in Africa: Rethinking Development Strategies

Why has the economic growth performance of Sub-Saharan Africa been disappointing on balance over the past 50 years? More importantly, what can be done to reverse that trend and to sustain and improve upon the accelerated growth experienced in recent years? What are the possibilities and policies for Africa to reduce poverty and achieve sustained, rapid economic growth? What are the lessons of success in both Africa and elsewhere? Could some of the policies that proved so successful in East Asia help reverse the deindustrialization of Africa in the past three decades and be the basis of its structural transformation?

These were the questions posed to a diverse group of experts on development convened by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD). This volume reflects the highlights of their deliberations. It broadens the policy debate, expands the policy options, and proposes alternative development strategies. This book captures the lively, and sometimes contentious, debate, and provides a note of optimism for the future. Though success is not assured, this volume argues that there is good reason to believe that policies based on lessons of successes, notably in East Asia, can be adapted successfully in African contexts.

About the Editors

Howard Stein
Professor, School of Public Health
University of Michigan

Howard Stein also teaches in the Department of Epidemiology. He is a development economist educated in Canada, the US, and the UK who has taught in both Asia and Africa. His research has focused on foreign aid, finance and development, structural adjustment, health and development, rural property right transformation, and industrial policy. His most recent monograph is Beyond the World Bank Agenda: An Institutional Approach to Development (University of Chicago Press, 2008).

Joseph Stiglitz
President
Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)

Joseph E. Stiglitz is President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, and Chairman of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. He is University Professor at Columbia, teaching in its Economics Department, its Business School, and its School of International and Public Affairs. He chaired the UN Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, created in the aftermath of the financial crisis by the President of the General Assembly. He is former Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank and Chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2001.

Akbar Noman
Senior Policy Fellow
Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)

Akbar Noman is Senior Fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His other academic appointments include Oxford University, and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Dr. Noman has spent over 25 years at the World Bank, where he held a variety of assignments. His regional foci included Africa, Asia and the transition economies in Europe and Central Asia. He has served as Economic Adviser to Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance and on the Prime Minister’s Committee on Economic Policy. He has also worked for the ILO’s Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion based in Bangkok and as a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University.

Kwesi Botchwey
Professor of Practice in Development Economics, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Tufts University

Kwesi Botchwey was Ghana’s Ministers of Finance from 1983-1995 and he was key to stabilizing the country’s collapsed economy. He is a member of the President’s Economic Advisory Council (Ghana) and member of the UN Committee on Development Policy (CDP). His past positions include: Professor of Practice in Development Economics at the Fletcher School, Tufts University and Director of African Research and Programs at the Center for International Development at Harvard University.