Reform, Economic Growth, and the Poverty Question in Africa

Abstract

In recent discussions on poverty in the developing world, particularly Africa, historically and politically, high economic growth rates have been acknowledged, both in globally and notably in Africa. Yet, experientially, economic growth and reforms have not translated into reducing the scourge of poverty suffered by nations in the global South. At the international level, regular revision of poverty reduction programmes with the intention of proffering imported solutions to African nations, without adequate acknowledgement of indigenous development paradigms and framework is rife. In view of the foregoing, this paper examines the paradox of crushing poverty in the midst of plenty and the vagary of importing solutions coupled with the intellectual aridity that has become endemic among present day academia, culminating in the absence of creative indigenous development thinking with pragmatic solutions in Africa.