Debates on African development continue to downplay the achievement of the continent: economic achievements are diminished and the perception of a conflict prone continent continues. Many of the policy prescriptions externally imposed on African countries have done little to transform the continent largely because they have been conceived and applied without context. Using literature from diverse origins, this book expands our knowledge about Africa and makes practical suggestions as to how successful development in a complex, yet dynamic continent can be achieved. Widening the policy dialogue and providing alternative thinking on the key elements and full extent of opportunities and challenges towards achieving the socio-economic transformation of Africa, the book moves the debate from the rhetoric to reality. As a considered reflection on the ‘Africa’s transformation’ narrative, it outlines the practical pathways necessary for Africa’s sustainable development, providing policy makers and researchers with tested solutions. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and policy professionals working in African development, public policy, international political economy, economic policy and politics.

Taking South Africa as an important case study of the challenges of structural transformation, the book offers a new micro-meso level framework and evidence linking country-specific and global dynamics of change, with a focus on the current challenges and opportunities faced by middle-income countries.

This report summarises the results of work at the Nordiska Afrikainstitutet/Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) on the impact of structural adjustment implementation on the economies, states and societies of sub-Saharan Africa. It consists of two essays and an appendix listing research projects which have been/are being carried out under the auspices of NAI. The first essay raises a series of conceptual and methodological questions in the context of a presentation of some of the main empirical results obtained from extended field work carried out during the course of 1992 and 1993 in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The second essay presents the three main themes - private trading networks and structures, the changing political economy of land, and popular forms of social provisioning - that constitute the core of the second phase of NAI's structural adjustment research and, in so doing, provides a review of aspects of the adjustment literature. This report is, therefore, an attempt both at stock-taking and agenda-building as part of a wider quest for deepening our understanding of the structures and processes of socio-economic change associated with the crisis and adjustment years in contemporary Africa

The main objective of this book is to identify the key sources of growth which have played a significant role in Africa's recent robust growth as well as its efforts towards economic transformation. The book assesses to what extent the existing macroeconomic frameworks among African countries have been streamlined to the countries' development priorities in order to achieve long-term growth and economic transformation. Taking into account the diversity of African countries, the authors establish the economic linkages between relevant macroeconomic policy variables and the key sources of growth and development among the selected African economies, based on both theoretical and empirical underpinnings. Following this, an outline of a macroeconomic framework for Africa’s long-term growth and economic transformation is suggested.

This Oxford Handbook provides a critical assessment of the history, patterns, and strategies of economic transformation. It deals with major themes including policy issues, illuminating country experiences, and important debates on the respective roles of the market and the state.

In recent years, some counties in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) have experienced growth in their economies and improvements in living standards. Although there is some debate, it is clear that the share of the population living below the poverty line fell significantly over the past decade and a half; there has been a general decline in infant mortality rates and increased access to education; in some of the fastest-growing economies, average growth rates have been positive for the first time in decades; and since the early 1990s, real consumption in SSA has grown between 3.4 and 3.7 percent per year. The reasons behind this so-called “African growth miracle” are not well understood, and to our knowledge, this paper is the first to connect these improvements in living standards to important occupational changes. Using data from the Groningen Growth and Development Center’s Africa Sector Database and the Demographic and Health Surveys, we show that much of SSA’s recent growth and poverty reduction has been associated with a substantive decline in the share of the labor force engaged in agriculture. This decline is most pronounced for rural females over the age of 25 who have a primary education. This has been accompanied by a systematic increase in the productivity of the labor force, as it has moved from low productivity agriculture to higher productivity services and manufacturing. We also show that although the employment share in manufacturing is not expanding rapidly, in most of the low-income SSA countries, the employment share in manufacturing has not peaked and is still expanding, albeit from very low levels. Although these patterns are encouraging, more work is needed to understand the implications of these shifts in employment shares for future growth and development in SSA.

Essential reading for those involved in implementing adjustment programmes, the findings of this UNDP commissioned research set out to analyse experiences and provide a set of development objectives. Insufficient attention has been paid in the programmes to the links between macroeconomic policy changes and microeconomic behaviour which has had a negative impact on investment and activity. BR> In association with UNDP, FSG and QEH

This book explores how better governance can help Africa to achieve structural transformation (understood to be the reallocation of factors of production across and within sectors to better support inclusive development), which history has shown to be key to sustained, inclusive growth. The book begins with a review of the existing literature on the links between governance and structural transformation and the success or otherwise of various sub regions in achieving structural transformation. It continues with a range of contributors addressing original empirical research on the relationships between different approaches to institutions and trade and industrial policies and structural transformation in Africa. The book makes recommendations for a new approach to governance in Africa that can deliver the structural transformation that the continent needs for Africans to enjoy shared prosperity, poverty reduction and development.

This book examines the role of structural change in the economic development of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) with a consideration for the role of industry, and in particular manufacturing.