Social experiments to fight poverty

A remarkable and insightful tribute into the works of late Malawian development economist, Professor Thandika Mkandawire. Must read for anyone looking to broaden their scope of understanding development as it relates to the African continent.

"Il paraît bien loin le temps où les banques centrales revendiquaient un objectif et un seul — l’inflation —, devant tout autre, que ce soit la croissance, l’emploi où l’équilibre des marchés financiers. Cette intransigeance obsessionnelle était le socle de leur crédibilité. Sans état d’âme et sans considération sociale, les …

Global Value Chains (GVCs) started to play an increasing and key role in the global economy from the 1990s on. The market mechanism in GVCs supports industrialisation in the Global South and under certain conditions product and process upgrading. But GVCs do not lead to the catching-up of countries in the sense of them approaching real GDP per capita levels comparable with developed countries. These arguments are supported by a critical interpretation of the traditional trade theory, the New Trade Theory and specific approaches to explain GVCs, especially different governance structures and power relationships. Several case studies support these arguments. For catching-up, countries need comprehensive horizontal and vertical industrial policy and policies for social coherence. The small number of countries which managed to catch up did this in different variations.

In this article, Tetteh Hormeku-Ajei and Camden Goetz discuss the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Africa’s natural resources.