“The global food crisis exposes the fragility of sub-Saharan economic progress”
Although the overall economic situation in sub-Saharan Africa appears to have improved in recent years, any discussion about a sustained turnaround for the region must consider the rural sector and the role of agricultural development in improving the livelihood of the poor. Even as better macroeconomic management and higher export commodity prices have in recent years led to per capita income growth in several countries, the poorest rural populations—the landless or small landowners who are net consumers of food—remain desperately poor. According to World Bank statistics, over half of sub-Saharan Africa’s rural population still lives in poverty, and the depth of poverty is greater than in any other region of the world, with many surviving on roughly $0.60 per day.
This article has become a book!
Africa’s Turn?
Edward Miguel
Cloth / April 2009
“A refreshing take on the fortunes of Africa in the current century and a fascinating compendium of some of the leading theorists of African development.” — Publishers Weekly
By the end of the twentieth century, sub–Saharan Africa had experienced twenty–five years of economic and political disaster. While “economic miracles” in China and India raised hundreds of millions from extreme poverty, Africa seemed to have been overtaken by violent conflict and mass destitution, and ranked lowest in the world in just about every economic and social indicator.
Working in Busia, a small Kenyan border town, economist Edward Miguel began to notice something different starting in 1997: modest but steady economic progress, with new construction projects, flower markets, shops, and ubiquitous cell phones. In Africa’s Turn? Miguel tracks a decade of comparably hopeful economic trends throughout sub–Saharan Africa and suggests that we may be seeing a turnaround.
Responding to Miguel, nine experts gauge his optimism: Olu Ajakaiye, Ken Banks, Robert Bates, Paul Collier, Rachel Glennerster, Rosamond Naylor, Smita Singh, David N. Weil, and Jeremy M. Weinstein.
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About the Author
Rosamond Naylor is Senior Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. She is the director of the Program on Food Security and the Environment.
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This is a response to Edward Miguel's Is It Africa's Turn?
Other responses in the New Democracy Forum:
Robert Bates
Ken Banks
Olu Ajakaiye
David N. Weil
Jeremy M. Weinstein
Smita Singh
Paul Collier
Rachel Glennerster
Edward Miguel offers his own response to the
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