Hemmed In: Responses to Africa's Economic Decline

by Thomas M. Callaghy and John Ravenhill, Editors

This volume provides an up-to-date overview and analysis of the current economic situation in Africa, and the political and social developments--both international and domestic--that have contributed to it. Leading specialists review the 1980s and early 1990s experience of structural adjustment and economic reform and suggest lessons for the future.

In thematic essays and case studies of Cameroon, Cite d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the authors focus on the following issues: the economic and political constraints Africa faces in pursuing more productive linkages with the world economy; the relationship between the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and bilateral aid conditionality and the progress of economic reform; flaws and misconceptions in the Western perspective which restrain economic progress; sectoral dilemmas in agriculture and manufacturing; everyday coping strategies of the informal sector; and the likely effects of simultaneous economic and political reform.

This hardheaded, comprehensive examination of the global and African responses to the continent's economic decline makes an important contribution to the growing debate on the solution to Africa's accelerating marginalization and dependence and on how to make it less "hemmed in".

About the editors..