Economic Report on Africa 2002

Economic Report on Africa 2002 is the third in an annual series that reviews the continent’s economic performance and near-term prospects. Targeted to African and global policymakers, the reports are meant to stimulate a process of discussion and change. It is in this spirit that each report is disseminated and discussed with African leaders at our annual Joint Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development.

This year’s report builds on the work of the two previous reports in laying out an agenda for Africa based on systematic benchmarking of economic performance. The main message of the first report was that most African countries, despite significant progress in macroeconomic policy reforms, still lacked the fundamentals for sustained growth and poverty reduction. The chief message of the second report was that structural transformation— the key to sustained growth and poverty reduction—was not happening fast enough to make inroads on poverty. The report argued that many African economies dependent on the primary sectors in production need to graduate to high-value-added products that could compete in the global marketplace.