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There's good news out of Africa. Seventeen emerging countries are putting behind them the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past. Since the mid-1990s, these countries have achieved steady economic growth, deepened democracy, improved governance, and decreased poverty. Former CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet's new book Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way takes a fresh approach to development in Africa by recognizing the important differences between the emerging countries, the oil-exporters (where progress has been uneven and volatile), and the others (where there has been little progress) instead of treating sub-Saharan Africa as a monolithic entity.
On Thursday, September 16, 2010, The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Center for Global Development were delighted to co-host the book launch of Emerging Africa featuring author Steve Radelet. Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer of The Brenthurst Foundation provided opening remarks and the session was chaired by Nancy Birdsall, President, Center for Global Development.
"Steve tosses out the stereotypes and unearths reality. . . . A meticulous and fascinating account of sub-Saharan Africa’s most successful economies." —Bono, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of ONE and (RED)
"Steve Radelet’s comprehensive analysis provides further grounds for optimism that improved macroeconomic management in a significant number of countries is producing tangible results, including resilience to recent shocks. It makes an important contribution to mounting evidence of sustainable economic improvements across the continent, while being realistic about the effort needed to tackle remaining challenges." —Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, former Minister of Finance of Liberia and Director, African Department, International Monetary Fund
"Africa is in flux. Many countries have learned from past mistakes and now face huge new opportunities. Yet much of this has gone unnoticed. Radelet's important book will open your eyes to the new realities." —Paul Collier, Oxford University, author of The Bottom Billion
