The long-forgotten subject of the ecological disadvantages of the tropics has been brought to the fore once again by the catastrophic droughts in the Sahel and in southern Africa. The naive belief that economic development is simply a matter of finding the right technology and of spreading...

The UN General Assembly has designated the 1978–1988 period as a Decade of Transport in Africa to draw attention to the immense efforts that are—in an internationally coordinated fashion—still needed in this continent. What contribution to Africa’s social and economic development may be...

A new catch-phrase in development policy, “political conditionality”, has rapidly established itself in recent times. Increasing numbers of Western politicians now seek to attach strings to development aid by requiring recipient countries to comply with certain political conditions. These...