Know the beginning well : an inside journey through five decades of African development

"With this book, the author offers a personal look at some of the landmark policies, people, and institutions that have shaped Africa's post-independence history-and will continue to shape its future. It is a true inside account-told from a very personal perspective-of the evolution of African development over the last five decades. The book is set in four parts, each going behind the scenes to shed new light on key points in development history over that time period: The first part, "Inside the Bank," focuses on the author's early career at the World Bank, a monolithic institution that effectively held the future of Africa in its hands yet employed very few Africans. The book explores the World Bank's changing attitudes-reflected in both its internal culture and its external approach to African development-from the 1970s into the 1990s. Part two, "In Africa," underscores the value of strong, capable institutions as agents of change. The author's arrival in 1995 as the head of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the oldest pan-African institution on the continent, coincided with the start of an exhilarating time of economic and political reform in the region-and a time when Africa began to reassert control over its future. The third part, "Around the World," goes behind the scenes of some of the bold, African-owned initiatives-including the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)-that accompanied the continent's rise to the top of the global development agenda in the new millennium-and laid the foundation for a new dynamic between Africa and the developed world. The final part, "Into the Future," envisions a hopeful but realistic outcome for Africa, exploring in particular two of the most critical needs for the continent's long-term growth: economic transformation and strong, principled leadership."