Africa Explained

AuthorCalvin McDonald
PositionAdvisor IMF African Department
Pages52-53

Page 52

Todd J. Moss

African Development Making Sense of the Issues and Actors

Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., Boulder, Colorado, 2007, 250 pp., $22 (paper).

Sub-Saharan Africa's early post-independence years were hopeful, and an international development industry quickly emerged to help the new countries. But as we all know, the region's experience has been deeply disappointing. Notwithstanding a recent pickup in economic growth, most countries are unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Todd Moss offers neither solutions nor clearcut answers to why Africa's economic performance has been so poor. Instead, the book is "intended to give a simple, but hopefully not simplistic, introduction to the main themes, trends, and players in contemporary African development." In that, it mostly succeeds.

"Big men" and bad legacies

Moss presents a fast-moving account of development in sub-Saharan Africa starting with an overview of the legacy of colonialism, the role of "big men" and personal rule, conflict and civil war, and contemporary political change and democratization. He addresses core development questions, including the slow-growth puzzle, issues in economic reform, and the role of international aid. He concludes by discussing regionalism and sub-Saharan Africa's place in the global economy.

The book has four underlying themes. First, sub-Saharan Africa has had an unlucky history and faces many structural factors that impede development, but the challenge is to harness the region's other advantages and work around these obstacles. Second, transforming the African state to improve accountability and the management of resources is key to attracting larger aid flows. Third, aid should be increased, but also become more effective. Finally, there is a shared responsibility between the region and the world to ensure that the former is able to take advantage of global economic opportunities.

Moss emphasizes how little we know about the development process and what makes aid effective. He is adept at presenting different, sometimes con-Page 53tradictory viewpoints. At all times, he seeks to illustrate the issues rather than suggest "magic bullet solutions."

But there is a downside to this "survey" approach. Moss is not always critical enough of the various views in the literature, leaving the reader wondering what to believe. For example, why does the "natural resource curse"...

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