It is true that Africa is often in the news for the wrong reasons. Genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan is the latest dismal story dominating African coverage; the ruinous policy of land redistribution in Zimbabwe is still a fresh memory.
Such developments entrench perceptions of Africa, a mindset that typically blurs any distinction between countries and presumes the continent hopeless. But such an analysis risks overlooking a nascent but significant trend: the emergence of a group of effective and influential policy-makers who are driving through difficult but necessary reform.
South Africa’s Trevor Manuel, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Mozambique’s Louisa Diogo – all finance ministers – characterise this new breed, synonymous with good policy and effective implementation. And others in Botswana, Ghana and Uganda are setting a new standard and quietly dispelling preconceptions.
That said, even at their furthest stretch, these trailblazers will not single-handedly put Africa on an immediate path to growth and development. It is by maintaining political and economic stability in their own countries, persisting with often painful reform and by fostering an environment of good governance and delivery that they will set the standard for others to follow. Africa’s economic salvation will spread from localised, specific nodes of success – countries and regions that have undertaken the necessary reform.
For this to happen, Africa’s external stakeholders – donors, creditors and investors – need to step up, orienting their focus and assistance to reward progressive governments and to support mechanisms, like the African Peer Group Review, that spread best practice blueprints across the continent. There are encouraging signs – the US Millennium Challenge Account operates on similar principles – but significant financial assistance must follow.
Without it, the hard work done to assuage resistance to reform will be undone. In Africa, there’s a scarcity of public officials with the economic sense and influence to steer the continent in the right direction. They need all the support they can get.
