The African Crisis and the Political Economy of Development

Abstract

This paper examines Africa’s recalcitrant development dilemma- its origins and the complete oscillation of stratagems that have been evolved to resolve it. The paper addresses the underlying intellectual arguments that directly informed policy prescriptions from the Import Substitution Industrialization strategies of the Sixties to the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and the prevailing New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) initiative. The paper then discusses the confluence of the two traditions in what is known in development parlance as development partnerships, arguing that this is in part a reflection and offshoot of extant global balance of power.