Economic and Social Determinants of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Development. Part 1

It was revealed that four decades after winning political independence the countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite considerable difficulties associated with the implementation of neocolonial policies by Western countries, have on the whole succeeded in achieving noticeable progress in increasing the human development index and total factor productivity. However, due to a number of factors, including low dynamics of industrial and innovative development and high rates of demographic growth in SSA countries, the gap in per capita GDP and productivity levels have risen significantly not only between SSA and the advanced economies, but also with other developing regions, and the share of the critically poor population in SSA remains still very high. Calculations made on a number of models demonstrate that the slow growth of per capita GDP in many sub-Saharan countries is associated with their lag in capital accumulation, exports of finished goods and the low level of government effectiveness. To overcome the gap, SSA countries need to (a) actively participate in the struggle to establish a more equitable world order; (b) increase efforts aimed at implementing export-oriented industrialization based on the rich resources of the continent, improving the quality of human capital, governance and infrastructure, and reducing social inequality.

sub-Saharan Africa, developing countries, development strategy, industrialization, accumulation of physical and human capital, productivity, inequality, institutions