Africa: Changing the Narrative
IMF Blog, December 3, 2011
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- Africa: Changing the Narrative
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Jeremy Clift
- Published: December 3, 2011
Overview
- Author: Jeremy Clift
- Publication date: December 3, 2011
- Central observation: Enduring poverty and conflict in Africa dominate Western headlines, while positive trends—accelerated economic growth, the rise of a middle class, and a more dynamic private sector—receive less attention.
Evidence of changing perceptions
- April 2011: Columbia Journalism Review study titled “Hiding the Real Africa” documented media bias toward crises (famines, pandemics, violent crises).
- Recent signals of shifting narrative highlighted:
- The Economist cover story on “Rising Africa”.
- The December 2011 issue of Finance and Development (F&D) on “Changing Africa: Rise of a Middle Class”.
- World Bank book: Yes Africa Can.
- African Development Bank study: Africa in 50 Years’ Time: The Road Towards Inclusive Growth.
- Quoted finding from the African Development Bank study: “Over the past decade, despite the successive global food and financial crises, Africa has been growing at an unprecedented rate. Though it will take decades of growth to make major inroads into Africa’s poverty, there is now a growing optimism about Africa’s potential.”
Exploring potential (highlights from F&D)
- Cover exemplars: Kenyans Susan Oguya and Jamila Abass, co-founders of AkiraChix, developed a mobile phone application for farmers in rural areas and operate in a technology hub for IT investors and tech companies.
- F&D lead article (Calestous Juma, Harvard): A growing middle class is shifting perceptions about Africa’s prospects. Key point: the middle class may have comparatively little to spend by Western or Asian standards, but the historical focus on eradicating poverty “distracted both African authorities and international donors from serious consideration of ways to promote prosperity infrastructure development: technical education, entrepreneurship, and trade.”
- IMF African Department head Antoinette Sayeh: Cementing economic growth in Africa is the key to helping the poorest members of society.
- Other noted contributors and topics in F&D:
- Abebe Selassie on challenges South Africa is facing.
- Paul Collier on railways as a crucial component of Africa’s needed infrastructure.
- “People in Economics” profile of Nigeria’s economic czar Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who emphasizes that Africa has to make up for lost time in the global race to be competitive.
- “Picture This” section projects what the African continent will look like fifty years from now.
Other articles in this issue (enumerated)
- How clues to whether easy credit causes booms and busts in asset prices can be found in U.S. farmland prices a century ago;
- How commodity-exporting governments can reduce debt and still protect their least well off citizens;
- How, contrary to popular wisdom, commodity prices can be more stable than prices of manufactured products;
- How emerging economies are less dependent on debt, less vulnerable to volatile investment sentiment, and are rethinking the role of capital flows;
- How the euro area's long-term survival calls for a fundamental transformation of policymaking;
- John Quiggin (author of Zombie Economics) looks at the pros and cons of privatization.
Institutional context: Finance & Development magazine
- Finance & Development is a quarterly magazine of the IMF, publishing analysis on the international financial system, monetary policy, economic development, poverty reduction, and other world economic issues.
- The print and web editions are published quarterly in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Source: Africa: Changing the Narrative — Jeremy Clift, December 3, 2011.
References
- https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fd-dec2011.jpg
- Changing Africa: Rise of a Middle Class
- Calestous Juma
- IMF African Department head Antoinette Sayeh
- Abebe Selassie
- Paul Collier
- “People in Economics” column, I profiled Nigeria’s economic czar, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
- Picture This
- How clues to whether easy credit causes booms and busts in asset prices can be found in U.S. farmland prices a century ago
- How commodity-exporting governments can reduce debt and still protect their least well off citizens
- How, contrary to popular wisdom, commodity prices can be more stable than prices of manufactured products
- How emerging economies are less dependent on debt, less vulnerable to volatile investment sentiment, and are rethinking the role of capital flows
- How the euro area's long-term survival calls for a fundamental transformation of policymaking
- the author of Zombie Economics, John Quiggin, looks at the pros and cons of privatization
- http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/fda.htm
