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This is the second volume of an analysis of the economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa, 1960-2000. It supports and extends the analysis of African economic growth presented in the first volume by providing 26 case studies of individual African economies.

In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of the current state of the African economy and makes constructive suggestions about its future direction. The contributors argue that despite enduring challenges such as food security and employment creation, Africa faces a brighter future in sustainable growth provided that governance and policy-making are effectively employed to maintain peace, achieve greater regional collaboration and encourage private sector competitiveness.

The most popularised concept in the economics of innovation literature has been the national system of innovation (NSI). It was in the late 1980s that the concept that Frederik List coined as the ?National Political Economy of Production? took off again with different thinkers writing about the peculiarities and distinctions of the Japanese, American, British, German, East Asian Tigers and other varieties of system construction. Freeman defines National System of Innovation as ?the network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diff use new technologies.? Richard Nelson defines it as ?a set of institutions whose interactions determine the innovative performance of national firms. Lundvall defines the system of innovation as the ?elements and relationships which interact in the production, diffusion and use of new and economically useful knowledge and are either located within or rooted inside the borders of a nation state.? The normative assumption is that those nations that succeeded in building economic strength relied on the science, engineering, technology and innovation capability that made them to achieve an innovation advantage to put them ahead in the world, acquiring national or regional economic leadership as the case may be depending on what level of analyses is selected to look at particular failure, success or progress they made. In this volume we have a glimpse of how in different African economies from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria specific cases have been taken to explore how systems of innovation is evolving.

Africa's Informal Workers is a vigorous examination of the informalization and casualization of work, which is changing livelihoods in Africa and beyond. Gathering cases from nine countries and cities across sub-Saharan Africa, and from a range of sectors, this volume goes beyond the usual focus on household ‘coping strategies’ and individual agency, addressing the growing number of collective organizations through which informal workers make themselves visible and articulate their demands and interests. The emerging picture is that of a highly diverse landscape of organized actors, providing grounds for tension but also opportunities for alliance. The collection examines attempts at organizing across the formal-informal work spheres, and explores the novel trend of transnational organizing by informal workers. Part of the ground-breaking Africa Now series, Africa’s Informal Workers is a timely exploration of deep, ongoing economic, political and social transformations.

This book illustrates the enduring relevance and vitality of the comparative political economy of development approach promoted among others by a group of social scientists in Oxford in the 1980s and 1990s. Contributors demonstrate the viability of this approach as researchers and academics become more convinced of the inadequacies of orthodox approaches to the understanding of development. Detailed case material obtained from comparative field research in Africa and South Asia informs analyses of exploitation in agriculture; the dynamics of rural poverty; seasonality; the non farm economy; class formation; labour and unfreedom; the gendering of the labour force; small scale production and contract farming; social networks in industrial clusters; stigma and discrimination in the rural and urban economy and its politics. Reasoned policy suggestions are made and an analysis of the comparative political economy of development approach is applied to the situation of Africa and South Asia. Aptly presenting the relation between theory and empirical material in a dynamic and interactive way, the book offers meaningful and powerful explanations of what is happening in the continent of Africa and the sub-continent of South Asia today. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of development studies, rural sociology, political economy, policy and practice of development and Indian and African studies. 1. Introduction Barbara Harriss-White and Judith Heyer 2. The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: Dinosaur or Phoenix? Lucia Da Corta 3. Strategic Dimensions of Rural Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa Frank Ellis 4. From 'Rural Labour' to 'Classes of Labour': Class Fragmentation, Caste and Class Struggle at the Bottom of the Indian Labour Hierarchy Jens Lerche 5. Poverty: Causes, Responses and Consequences in Rural South Africa Elizabeth Francis 6. Seasonal Food Crises and Social Protection in Africa Stephen Devereux 7. The Political Economy of Contract Farming in Tea in Kenya: The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), 1964-2002 Cosmas Ochieng 8. Networking for Success: Informal Enterprises and Popular Associations in Nigeria Kate Meagher 9. Free and Unfree Labour: The Cape Wine Industry 1938-1988 Gavin Williams 10. The Opium Revolution: Continuity or Change in Rural Afghanistan? Adam Pain 11. The Marginalisation of Dalits in a Modernising Economy Judith Heyer 12. Shifting the Grindstone of Caste? Decreasing Dependency Amongst Dalit Labourers in Tamilnadu Hugo Gorringe 13. Liberalisation and Transformations in India’s Informal Economy: Female Breadwinners in Working Class Households in Chennai Karin Kapadia 14. Dalit Entrepreneurs in Middle India Aseem Prakash 15. Stigma and Regions of Accumulation: Mapping Dalit and Adivasi Capital in the 1990s Barbara Harriss-White with Kaushal Vidyarthee Barbara Harriss-White is director of Oxford University’s new Contemporary South Asian Studies programme, and was formerly Director of the Department of International Development at Queen Elizabeth House. She has been studying India ever since driving there in 1969, focussing on the political economy of long term rural development. Judith Heyer was formerly a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College, and Lecturer in the Department of Economics, at Oxford University, before which she held posts at Nairobi University’s Institute for Development Studies, and Economics Department. She is now a Fellow Emeritus of Somerville College, Oxford. A specialist in rural development and in micro-economics, she has written and edited a number of books on rural and agricultural development in Kenya and Africa.

Indonesian and Nigerian politics paralleled each other to a remarkable degree before diverging suddenly when oil money came into play. Both were populous, ethnically diverse countries with abundant natural resources and histories of political turbulence and authoritarian rule. But despite these likenesses, the two countries have seen dramatic differences in economic performance over recent decades: Indonesia grew rapidly and was able to improve national standards of living, while Nigeria stagnated and experienced deepening poverty. Author Peter Lewis suggests that the explanation for this divergence is found in each country's way of confronting policy reform and developing institutions for economic growth. Based on the author's detailed study of forty years of economic change, Growing Apart offers conclusions about the policy decisions, governmental institutions, and political foundations needed for long-term economic growth.

'The big, era-defining questions and, at last, the subtle, tenable answers, teased out without clich or compromise. A vital volume at a critical moment.' Dr Augustus Casely-Hayford, Director, Africa '05 'This book dispels the myth of a uniformly hopeless, hungry continent. It shows just how extraordinarily diverse Africa is and how much it has changed in the last 20 years.Full of fresh thinking on problems that face Africa and new African approaches to development.' Richard Dowden, Director, Royal African Society This ground-breaking book, with a foreword by former President of Ireland (199-997) and UN Human Rights Commissioner (1997 2002) Mary Robinson, uniquely distils the complex issues surrounding Africa at the beginning of the 21st century. African and Western scholars provide a fascinating 'map' for the reader to navigate between issues such as urban and rural livelihoods, the potential of fresh water fishing, health, the HIV/AIDS crisis, conflict and efforts at peacemaking. Also included are critical assessments of Africa's role in the global economy, the growth of regional economic cooperation within Africa, the influence of ethnicity on the continent's politics, the evolution of its political institutions, and the impact of Africa's legal systems on its development. A substantial introductory essay by the editors measures the distance Africa has travelled and the lessons it has learned since Africa in Crisis, the classic Earthscan book, was published in 1985. Ben Wisner is visiting research fellow at DESTIN, London School of Economics and at Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London, and visiting professor of environmental studies, Oberlin College, USA. Camilla Toulmin is Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development. Rutendo Chitiga is a freelance writer and editor, and has a postgraduate degree in environment and development.

Over the past decade Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a remarkable turnaround in economic performance. After years of stagnation, economic growth has spurted gross domestic product (GDP) grew from an annual average rate of less than 2 percent in 1978-95 to nearly 6 percent over 2003-08. Inflation is half its level of the mid-1990s. Private capital flows have risen to $50 billion, exceeding foreign aid. Exports are growing, as is private sector activity. The number of democratic regimes has risen and the security situation has improved. The poverty rate is falling by 1 percentage point a year. Countries such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritania, and Rwanda are on track to reach many of the millennium development goals. Nine African countries have achieved or are on track to achieve the target for extreme poverty. Among other encouraging trends are more fair and effective leadership, an improving business climate, increasing innovation, a more involved citizenry, and growing reliance on home-grown solutions. More and more, Africans are driving African development. This increased dynamism in Sub-Saharan Africa is evident across a broad swath of countries. It has created optimism that Africa's favorable development performance will be long lasting and that it could dramatically transform countries in the region. Along the way, the prevailing discourse on Africa's economic development has shifted from whether the region will develop to how the region is developing. After a review of the major recent economic developments in Africa, this overview describes the approach and methodology used in the study of African successes.