Innovating Development Strategies in Africa
The Role of International, Regional and National Actors

This book examines postcolonial strategies for economic development in Africa from the 1960s to the present day.

Landry Signé (Author)

9781316625620, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 February 2020

230 pages, 7 b/w illus. 17 tables
23 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.45 kg

'Professor Signé offers a highly original take on Africa's development trajectory since independence. In focusing our attention on innovations in development strategy, Signé illuminates how African governments have changed both the policies they choose and the institutional means by which they choose them. Drawing on a thoughtful analysis of nine cases in francophone Africa, Signé captures the transition from structural adjustment to new frameworks and approaches, including the New Partnership for Africa's Development. His approach challenges scholars to think critically about mechanisms of policy innovation on the continent, and to take seriously the ways in which national governments and regional organizations are reshaping the contours of development strategy.' Jeremy Weinstein, Stanford University, former Deputy to the US Ambassador to the United Nations and former Director for Development and Democracy on the National Security Council staff at the White House

During the second half of the twentieth century, African states shifted away from state-led development strategies, and are now moving towards a strategy of regional economic integration. In this book, Landry Signé explores the key drivers of African policy and economic transformation, proposing a preeminent explanation of policy innovations in Africa through the examination of postcolonial strategies for economic development. Scholars and practitioners in fields as varied as development studies, political science and public policy, economics, sociology and African studies will benefit from Signé's unprecedented comparative analysis, including detailed cases from the often understudied Francophone Africa. First studying why, how and when institutional or policy change occurs in Africa, Signé explores the role of international, regional and national actors in making African economic development strategies from 1960 to date, highlighting the economic transformations of the twenty-first century.

1. Innovation in African economic development strategy: literature review and conceptual clarification
2. Theoretical and methodological framework: ideas, interests, institutions, time, and the role of international, regional, and national actors in economic development strategy
3. Time, historical context, and innovation in African development strategies
4. Ideas, values, paradigms and policy innovations in Africa
5. Interests, strategies, and policy innovation in Africa
6. How do international, regional, and national actors affect innovation in African development strategies?

Subject Areas: Economic growth [KCG], Regional government [JPR], Central government [JPQ], Politics & government [JP], African history [HBJH]