Corruption taking its toll on growth

In "Rethinking Growth"(March 2006), the authors describe six lessons that may help explain the stunted growth of many developing countries in the 1990s. I agree entirely with those lessons, but would add a seventh, which is no less important: poor governance and corruption.

I am surprised that the countries of Africa-which I know well-experienced any growth at all during the period in question, given what was going on in terms of misappropriating funds. Sadly, citizens of those countries are for the most part unaware of what is happening. Otherwise, how can we explain the fact that some government officials are still getting away with misappropriating meager state resources, placing them in foreign banks, or investing them abroad?

Is growth possible without optimizing funding? Even foreign direct investment is not well received in those countries owing to corruption: often, those in power require investors to pay them personally a percentage of their capital before they can obtain authorization to invest in the country. This is an enormous disincentive for investors. Bogus investments are also very common in developing countries due to corruption. And donors are undoubtedly party to this.

Isidore Dagoudo

Student of Economics

University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin

A missed opportunity

Congratulations on your fascinating issue "The Economics of Demographics" (September 2006), which is well crafted and most timely. Unfortunately, you missed the opportunity to put a much stronger focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Today, 31 of the 35 countries that still have total fertility rates higher than five children per woman are in sub-Saharan Africa. The rapid population growth in Africa, despite the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, will have far-reaching implications for economic growth and development prospects in the region as well as repercussions in other regions (for instance through emigration pressure toward Europe). In addition, the commitment and leadership needed to address these issues both among African governments and development institutions are timid at best. Much more information, policy dialogue, and advocacy are needed. All this would have called for an...