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Africa
AFRICA AND CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
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Edited by Shuilin Wang and Albert G. Zeufack
May 2022. 400 pages. Stock no. C211823 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1823-3). US$60.50
This book contributes to the understanding of the complexities and dynamics that underlie the relationship between Africa and China, and how to make this relationship truly mutually beneficial. It makes practical suggestions as to how the continent could best leverage China's continued involvement and how Chinese investments could better support African development. The book focuses on four thematic issues: investment and infrastructure, technology and digital innovation, structural transformation, and poverty reduction and human capital development. These issues all played an important role in China's rapid economic modernization and are fundamental to sustainable development and economic transformation in Africa. The chapters are based on research and analyze the experience of China and African countries in each of the thematic issues, as well as the impact of Chinese investments in Africa on both China and African countries. The book also highlights the importance of leveraging partnerships in support of African development.
MAKING THE MOST OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA
Leveraging Trade and Foreign Direct Investment to Boost Growth and Poverty Reduction
By Roberto Echandi, Maryla Maliszewska, and Victor Steenberg
April 2022. 190 pages. Stock no. C211827 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1827-1). US$49.50
This volume expands on the analysis presented in the 2020 World Bank book, The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): Economic and Distributional Effects. That study showed that the AfCFTA could potentially increase real income in Africa by an additional 7 percent by 2035, over and above what would otherwise have been achieved by then. These gains would come from increased intraregional trade, and would bring 40 million people out of extreme poverty and raise the incomes of 75 million others who live on less than US$5.50 per day—after factoring in the number of people pushed into poverty because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine the potential dynamic gains from trade, factoring in the foreign direct investment (FDI) that is expected to follow greater trade openness (both intra- and extra-regional FDI). Accounting for the expected impact of the continental free trade area in boosting FDI, the AfCFTA FDI “Broad” scenario could generate a further 0.8 percent boost to real income, reaching about 8 percent in 2035, compared to the baseline without AfCFTA. Adding the gains from deeper integration, the AfCFTA FDI “Deep” scenario would bring these gains up to 9 percent. Extreme poverty would fall further under the more ambitious trade liberalization and deeper integration envisaged under the AfCFTA FDI Broad scenario and AfCFTA FDI Deep scenarios, respectively. The AfCFTA can catapult Africa's development. However, unlocking these potential gains will not be automatic, but will require implementation of a set of parallel actions.
SOCIAL CONTRACTS FOR DEVELOPMENT
By Mathieu Cloutier, Bernard Harborne, Deborah Isser, Indhira Santos, and Michael Watts
Sub-Saharan Africa has achieved significant gains in reducing the levels of extreme poverty in recent decades. Yet, the region continues to experience challenges across the development indicators, including energy access, literacy, delivery of services and goods, and jobs skills, as well as low levels of foreign direct investment. Exacerbating the difficulties faced by many countries are the sequelae of conflict, such as internal displacement and refugee migration. Social Contracts for Development: Bargaining, Contention, and Social Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa builds on recent attention to the real-life social and political economy factors that underlie the power dynamic and determine the selection and implementation of policies. Applying a social contract approach to development policy, the authors provide a framework and proposals on how to measure such a framework to strengthen policy and operational engagements in the region. The key message is that Africa’s progress toward shared prosperity requires looking beyond technical policies to understand how the power dynamics and citizen-state relations shape the menu of implementable reforms. A social contract lens can help diagnose constraints, explain outbreaks of unrest, and identify opportunities for improving outcomes.
AFRICA DEVELOPMENT FORUM
January 2022. 122 pages. Stock no. C211662 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1662-8). US$43.00
THE FUTURE OF RESOURCES IN AFRICA
The Role of Extractives for Transformation under the Carbon Transition
By James Frederick Cust and Boubacar Bocoum
Harnessing natural resource wealth to drive economic transformation is central to Africa's economic future. The situation is one of both challenges—including rising debt distress and unmet expectations—and opportunities, with new discoveries and large reserves waiting to be exploited. How can Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries prepare for the future, while learning the lessons of the past? Three key trends underpin the importance of addressing this challenge: The majority of countries in SSA are now categorized as resource-rich. Meanwhile, Africa remains relatively underexplored by global standards. Under the right circumstances, Africa may receive a disproportionate share of exploration in the future. By 2030, almost 90 percent of the world’s poor will live in the Africa region, and almost 75 percent of the world’s poor will be located in resource-rich countries. Poverty eradication is therefore becoming a disproportionately resource-rich country and Africa-region problem. The world has emerged from a broadly long commodity price boom (2003–14) and a relative slump, especially for petroleum (2014–18). Despite this boom and bust cycle, few
African countries made progress to shift their economies away from resource dependence.
AFRICA DEVELOPMENT FORUM
March 2022. 200 pages. Stock no. C211743 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1743-4). US$48.50
INDUSTRIALIZATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Seizing Opportunities in Global Value Chains
By Kaleb G. Abreha, Woubet Kassa, Emmanuel K. K. Lartey, Taye A. Mengistae, Solomon Owusu, and Albert G. Zeufack
AFRICA DEVELOPMENT FORUM
December 2021. 200 pages. Stock no. C211673 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1673-4). US$43.00
Industrialization drives the sustained growth in jobs and productivity that marks the developmental take-off of most developed economies. Yet, academics and policy makers have questioned the role of manufacturing in development for late industrializers, especially in view of rapid advancements in technologies and restructuring of international trade. Concurrently, industrialization and structural transformation are integral to the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the development strategies of several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Given this renewed interest in industrialization across the region, a central question is not whether SSA countries should pursue industrialization as a potential path to sustainable growth but how to promote the prospects of industrialization. Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Seizing Opportunities in Global Value Chains addresses this question by reassessing the prospects for industrialization in SSA countries through integration into global value chains. It also examines the role of policy in enhancing these prospects. The report emphasizes the role of policy in maintaining a competitive market environment, promoting productivity growth, and investing in skills development and enabling sectors such as infrastructure and finance.
AFRICA IN THE NEW TRADE ENVIRONMENT
Market Access in Troubled Times
Edited by Souleymane Coulibaly, Woubet Kassa, and Albert G. Zeufack
January 2022. 350 pages. Stock no. C211756 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1756-4 US$53.95
Africa represents a small share of global production and trade, while hosting half of the extreme poor worldwide. To catch up with the rest of the world, there is no alternative: the continent needs to link its production and trade to the global economy to take advantage of unlimited demand and innovation along the supply chain. The book presents a strategy to bolster Africa's market access in the current global environment. It explores three key areas: the impact of trade agreements with traditional partners (the European Union and the United States) and a way forward; the role of new market frontiers in Asia both from the perspective of restructuring economies in the region as well as changing global value chains and their implications for Africa; and finally an inward examination of the promise and challenges of regional trade and value chains. The book meticulously explores ways to maximize Africa's access to the two leading world markets—the European Union and the United States—while at the same time diversifying market access to the emerging Asian market. In troubled times, it calls for the continent to anchor its market access strategy to deeper regional integration.
By Roberta Gatti, Kathryn Andrews, Ciro Avitabile, Ruben Conner, Jigyasa Sharma, and Andres Yi Chang
For the past decade, the World Bank's Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) surveys have collected nationally representative data in countries across Africa to measure the quality of services where they meet citizens: in schools and health facilities. The Quality of Health and Education Systems Across Africa: Evidence from a Decade of Service Delivery Indicators Surveys sheds light on how service delivery may foster or stunt human capital accumulation. SDI surveys show that schools and health clinics across Africa are still falling short in some critical areas. Many health facilities lack the basic necessities to provide proper care, such as essential medicines, basic diagnostic equipment, and adequate water and sanitation. Learning is low, and, not unlike health care, levels of student learning vary significantly across countries: less than half of grade 4 students can recite a simple sentence or perform basic mathematical operations. By studying data from thousands of facilities, this book offers important insights for how countries can strengthen health and education systems and build back better in the wake of the massive disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
December 2021. 166 pages. Stock no. C211675 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-1675-8). US$43.00
INSECT AND HYDROPONIC FARMING IN AFRICA
The New Circular Food Economy
By Dorte Verner, Nanna Roos, Afton Halloran, Glenn Surabian, Edinaldo Tebaldi, Maximillian Ashwill, Saleema Vellani, and Yasuo Konishi
While current agri-food production models rely on abundant supplies of water, energy, and arable land, past practices point toward more affordable and sustainable paths. Different forms of insect farming and soilless crop farming, or hydroponics, have existed for centuries. In this report, the authors make a persuasive case that frontier agriculture, particularly insect and hydroponic farming, can complement conventional agriculture. As the report shows, insect and hydroponic farming can create jobs, diversify livelihoods, improve nutrition, and provide many other benefits in African and fragile, conflictaffected countries. Together with other investments in climate-smart agriculture, these technologies are part of a promising menu of solutions that can help countries move their land, food, water, and agriculture systems toward greater sustainability. This book is the World Bank's first attempt to look at insect and hydroponic farming as possible solutions to the world's climate and food and nutrition security crisis and may represent a new chapter in the Bank's evolving efforts to help feed and sustain the planet.
