Book
Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

‘Africa has been a puzzle for development specialists for well over half a century. From the post-Independence euphoria, when sub-Saharan Africa outperformed Southeast Asia, to the grim reality of failed industrialization strategies and the pain of structural adjustment during the commodity bust of the 1980s and 1990s, to the resurgence of growth after the turn of the Millennium, the Continent has resisted easy answers to even simple questions: are living standards rising or falling? Is economic growth finally having an impact on rural poverty?

This volume provides the best possible answers to these questions, under the circumstances of seriously inadequate macroeconomic data and incredible country and regional heterogeneity. But the methodological innovations provided by this distinguished UNU-WIDER team of researchers, and their painstaking work with colleagues at the country level, has most assuredly provided the development profession with the benchmark for measuring progress going forward. The authors are cautiously optimistic that most of the Continent is now on a sustainable development path that will see higher living standards in both rural and urban areas.’

C. Peter Timmer, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

‘This book provides the appropriate balance in the analysis of the links between two decades of growth and poverty-reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. Relying on very comprehensive and excellent country studies, it is able to show a lot more clearly than others, the mainly positive effects of the recent African growth experience. The book brings together good country data, excellent analyses and solid understanding of local contexts.’

Ernest Aryeetey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana

‘This book masterfully combines macroeconomic, microeconomic, and case study approaches in analyzing the complex relationship between growth and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. It avoids the all-too-common simplistic characterizations of the continent, and instead weaves a balanced, nuanced, and informative narrative of where things have gone relatively well, where they have not, and the multiple forces behind these trends. This book is a must read for all serious scholars and analysts of economic development in Africa.’

Steven Radelet, Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development and Director of the Global Human Development Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University