Abstract
Development in Africa: Refocusing the Lens After the Millennium Development Goals is a thorough analysis on the political economy of African states, and the road to Agenda 2063. Edited by George Kararach, Hany Besada and Timothy M. Shaw, it offers a compilation of propositions on how African states can reach the ambitious goals set in the post-2015 development agenda. The book’s main objective is to explore development progress 15 years after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) extensively. While many studies have sought to focus on the remaining challenges that the continent faces, the book shifts its vision towards the implementation of attractive regional strategies for improving the economy and meeting developmental goals focussed on youth and the environment. Their elaborate analysis emphasizes the need to reorient economic growth, to create economic opportunities and to lift more Africans out of poverty while creating a modern formalized economy (p. 52).
Keeping inclusive growth at the centre, in each chapter, the authors argue for new, alternative forms of governance, economic management and regionalism perspectives. For instance, the book specifically focusses on making the notion of a ‘developmental’ or effective state relevant. The authors explain that a steadily growing economy shaped by commodity prices, foreign direct investment and Africa’s home-grown industries has accounted for a great amount of employment creation in the last decade. However, this growth can have a major impact by prioritizing strategic areas and ambitious goals. The reader is then introduced to these new alternative forms of governance represented as prioritized areas in each chapter. For example, Kararach argues that despite growth-linked optimism, Africa still faces a number of development challenges related to the environment, such as setting carbon taxes to ameliorate climate change; unemployment; human security challenges related to migration; reducing support for repressive regimes and improved sharing of financial information to reduce money laundering, illicit flows and tax avoidance (p. 77).
Drawing from empirical evidence from case studies across Africa, the authors delve into economic development and state capacity from different perspectives throughout the book. Strategic changes advocating policies towards strengthening developmental states are also discussed. For example, Kararach argues that a ‘developmental’ or ‘plan-rational state’ is one that is determined to influence the direction and pace of economic development by directly intervening in the development process (p. 138). These include the debate between emerging ‘agency’ versus ‘dependency’ as a correlation of the continent’s robust economic growth. For instance, Shaw and Polonenko debate the extent to which African non-state actors have real agency. As shown throughout the literature, the growth of African agency is reflected by their increasing influence in the global sphere. For instance, South Africa has been elevated and recognized as the fifth member of BRICS. The role of China in Africa’s changing agency is also accounted by the authors. Overall, Africa is shifting its relations from North–South to South–South, particularly with the BRICS and Gulf Region (p. 100).
The findings for each case study are laid out and analyzed, focussing on the role of climate change, regionalism and gender in development, all of which contribute to existing literature on development in Africa. A key finding arising from this collective research is the importance of the developmental state in prioritizing youth employment. To be most effective, policy, direct actions and knowledge production must work collectively towards sustaining job creation for young people in Africa (p. 175), especially when thinking about Africa’s young people’s lack of attractive opportunities. According to Shaw and Polonenko, African brain drain is real and has been well documented in the past years. An increasing number of African-trained medical graduates coming from Sub-Saharan Africa work in the USA. Polonenko and Shaw applaud the UNECA declaration introduced in 2011, which commits the continent to adopt a ‘developmental state’ strategy and assure partnerships with business actors and governments (p. 86).
One of the major strengths of this book is its ability to apply a political economy approach in ways that follow an innovative path to sustainable growth. The authors introduce the results based on the post-2015 development agenda and then introduce the new challenges to demonstrate the relevance of considering economic aspects, governance regimes and the environment in the African developmental state. For instance, Besada, Denton and O’Bright argue that the shift in the Earth’s temperature has a direct impact in African politics and the economy. Ideas introduced in this book could increase the sense of urgency while linking it directly to the economy. The book makes it clear that future studies should closely examine ‘climate conflict, and the cost-benefit of assessing the impact of development by triggering migration, political instability, water scarcity and environmental insecurity’ (p. 338).
This volume would benefit researchers and students of development studies and economics. The critical assessment of the MDGs also makes this book relevant for policymakers around the world. African states are one of the best learning examples of developmental state achievements. New challenges are identified, but are those challenges exclusive to this region of the world? Through a critical examination of experiments in the developmental state in Africa, the book is a valuable contribution for development scholars and experts working in other areas around the globe.