Beyond Structural Adjustment: The Institutional Context Of African Development

This is a very useful and timely book. It provides us with an excellent overview of the salient issues on African development in the post-structural adjustment era. It will be required reading for those following development in Africa. Carol Lancaster --assistant professor and Master of Science in Foreign Service at Georgetown University.


The book starts with the premise that Africa's economic renewal will require moving beyond the narrow bounds of structural adjustment reform and promoting the greater effectiveness of the region's public institutions. Economic reform will not be successful unless the central states in the region develop more productive relationships with the other institutions that inevitably condition economic relations and the context in which development takes place. This institutional debate is particularly important because the recent democratization of African public life has resulted in a rapidly evolving institutional landscape, with the emergence of significant new actors. Each of the chapters in this book examines these relationships and attempts to define the appropriate developmental role of the different institutions that can play a prominent role in Africa's economic future.