Introduction: Africa's Economic Growth Depends First of All on Good Economic Policy, Not on Foreign Aid

Summary

“It is up to developing countries themselves and their governments to take the lead on development. They need to decide, plan and sequence their economic policies to fit with their own development strategies, for which they should be accountable to all their people.”

Excerpt of the G8 Statement on Africa, Gleneagles, July 2005.

The Aim of This Book

The goal of this book is to define a good economic policy for African countries within the context of globalization. It stems from the observation that Africa's current marginalization in the global scene is due to the fact that the economic policy put in place by African countries is not well oriented. Consequently, this marginalization is not an inevitable process and the implementation of a new economic policy, the main contours of which this book seeks to analyze, could enable these countries to reverse the trend and achieve sustainable growth in a rapidly globalizing world. The primary goal of this book, therefore, is to contribute to the improvement of economic policy in African countries, given that a good economic policy must necessarily take into account the constraints and opportunities that the process of globalization presents.

Thus, the question to which I am attempting to provide an answer focuses on the type of economic policies that African countries can implement in order to promote economic growth and fully benefit from globalization.