Part Three - Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities for African Economic Policy

Summary

The purpose of this book is to clearly situate the economic policy of African countries within the context of globalization and to examine the manner in which globalization should be considered in conceiving and implementing economic policy. In Part Three, I will therefore look at globalization in terms of formulation and conduct of economic policy according to the conceptual framework developed in the first two parts of this book. Although economic policy and globalization may appear as two distinct themes that may each deserve separate treatment, Part Three is out to show that these two themes are so interwoven that it will be very difficult to completely treat one without the other.

In Africa, as well as in other continents of the world today, where countries are called upon to build their development, economic policy and globalization are not two distinct realities which could be treated in two separate works. In fact, to decision makers of economic policy, globalization, its ramifications and implications are everyday concerns. For literature on economic policy to be pedagogic and truly useful to decision makers, the major challenge is to bring together these two realities in an integrated concept of economic policy. It is this integration that I will try to achieve in Part Three.

From this integrative perspective of globalization and economic policy, Part Three initially characterizes the globalization process by examining the major actors and factors which determine it (Chapter 9).