African economic development in a comparative perspective

Conventional explanations of poor African economic performance generally fail to pay adequate attention to causal mechanisms of growth, decline and stagnation. Many African countries experienced investment booms after independence but, in contrast to East Asian newly industrialising economies, these were not sustained owing to failure to establish a virtuous growth circle involving complementary increases in savings and exports. Structural adjustment programmes dismantled state-mediated mechanisms of accumulation without putting viable alternatives in place, and failed to tackle the structural constraints which impede productivity growth in agriculture. A new policy approach, drawing on the experience of both post-colonial and adjustment periods, is necessary.