Introduction

It has been half a century since most African countries gained independence to manage not only their political affairs but also their economic destinies. The results from the five decades of economic development have been anything but glowing. Occasionally, there has been modest macroeconomic stability and growth on the continent but they have been neither sustainable nor inclusive. The patterns of economic growth, when they have been positive, have not been sustainable because the overall structural foundations on which African economies rest are fragile and vulnerable to world commodity prices. Compounding this issue is the fact that Africa has a weak industrial base and a massive debt overhang. Similarly, any data celebrating development in Africa ought to be greeted with caution because such data have generally been uneven and mask the variation in economic performance among African countries. A recent case in point is this. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November 2008 forecasted that while economic growth will slow markedly for all regions in the coming year, Africa’s economic performance will best other regions, with GDP projected at 5.2 percent in 2008 and 4.7 percent in 2009.1 The uneven nature of such a forecast is aptly captured in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s latest report on “least developed countries” (LDCs). Of the 50 countries designated by the UNCTAD as LDCs in 2008, more than half (33 countries to be precise) were in Africa.2 One of the central claims of this book is that the crisis of development in Africa since independence is related to the policy choices and development models chosen by the actors responsible for the planning and executing of economic development, including African international economic organizations (IEOs).