Indeed, according to the 2010 OECD African Economic Outlook, growth should bounce back to over 5% in sub-Saharan Africa in 2011. Africa’s success story over the last decade is linked to what has been happening in the wider global economy. The extraordinary rebalancing of the world economy, which the crisis accelerated (“shifting wealth”), has led to Asian drivers pushing prices and volumes of trade in traditional African exports. But Africa’s success also owes much to what has been happening on the continent itself, including improved macro-economic and fiscal management in many countries, and less conflict and political instability.

Africa has been able to implement more ambitious policies too, notably in social and economic infrastructure investment. This has led to progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), notably in girls’ enrolment in primary education.

Nonetheless, the continent still faces enormous challenges in achieving key MDGs by 2015, particularly those relating to reducing maternal mortality, and improving access to clean water and sanitation.

African governments and people have been the main players behind this new era of progress, and their keeping it up and delivering more social progress will depend on good policies, not least in making the most effective use possible of fiscal revenues from natural resources and other expanding sectors. The valuable political stability the continent has worked hard to achieve in recent years should be preserved.

International partners have also had a key role to play, and can be expected to devote greater effort in ensuring Africa continues to move forward. This includes donors, who must honour their existing commitments to scale up development aid, particularly for the most fragile and poorest countries, and to help improve its effectiveness, as the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, whose members account for the lion’s share of the world’s bilateral official development assistance, has been arguing for some time. Meanwhile, aid has changed to embrace far more than just financial assistance, and nowadays emphasises the likes of local initiatives and empowerment, partnerships, policy coherence, accountability, monitoring performance, and much more. All partners must focus on wider challenges as well, such as containing climate change, which has had a major impact in Africa, fostering green growth strategies, technology sharing and innovation. Completing the Doha Development Round would also allow Africa new opportunities to trade, while taking further action to improve governance in areas such as taxation and anti-corruption initiatives would also help.

When the OECD was established in 1961, Article 1 of its founding convention gave it a mandate to promote growth and poverty reduction in non-member countries in the process of development. Indeed, the Development Assistance Committee and the OECD Development Centre were instituted as part of the new organisation, while in the mid-1970s the need for a sharper focus on Africa inspired the creation of the “Club de Sahel”, now called the Sahel and West Africa Club. And in 2006, at the request of major developed countries and African partners, the Africa Partnership Forum was set up, with the OECD hosting its support unit. Today, this mission is reflected in a deepening and broadening of its work on Africa, in ever-closer partnerships with institutions such as the African Development Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Economic Commission of West African States. New joint reports have been launched in recent years to monitor progress more closely, including the African Economic Outlook and the Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness. Nor is this cross-cutting work confined to the OECD’s development specialists, but draws on expertise across the whole range of OECD work, from tax and investment to trade and the environment. Indeed, African countries have looked to the OECD’s green growth and innovation strategies as a rich source of experience, insights and policy guidance that they can adopt to expedite progress towards a stronger, cleaner and fairer economy.

The chill of the crisis may have been felt in Africa, but thanks to the recent years of growth, the continent has had the strength to deal with it. Africa is a region with great potential. Its progress in increasing school enrolment and in applying information and communications technology has been impressive. Its new generation of innovative entrepreneurs is ready to take full advantage of the shifting global landscape and the continent`s calmer, more stable, political scene. This, together with a recovery in developed country markets, bodes well for the future. For the OECD, deepening links with Africa and working alongside our partners form an integral part of our wider strategy to boost the impact and usefulness of the organisation in a fast-changing world. It is part of our founding mission to deliver greater prosperity for all.

Recommended links and references

See www.oecd.org/development African Partnership Forum: www.africapartnershipforum.org/

OECD Development Centre: www.oecd.org/dev

For more on development aid, see the new Development Co-operation Directorate/

DAC site: www.oecd.org/dac

Sahel and West Africa Club: www.oecd.org/swac

©OECD Yearbook 2011

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