FSG Faculty T. Jayne leads special issue of the Journal of Development Studies
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EmailEconomic Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Africa’s Unfolding Economic Transformation, Journal of Development Studies, 54(5), March 2018
Special issue of the Journal of Development Studies on Economic Transformation in Africa, T. S. Jayne (1), Jordan Chamberlin (2) and Rui Benfica (3), guest editors.
Links to the individual articles:
· Article Africa’s Unfolding Economic Transformation
· Article Agricultural Transformation, Nutrition Transition and Food Policy in Africa: Preston Curves Reveal New Stylised Facts
· Article Understanding the Role of Rural Non-Farm Enterprises in Africa’s Economic Transformation: Evidence from Tanzania
· Article Africa’s Evolving Employment Trends
· Article Changing Patterns of Wealth Distribution: Evidence from Ghana
· Article Youth Migration and Labour Constraints in African Agrarian Households
· Article Roads and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
· Article Micro-Level Welfare Impacts of Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Rural Malawi
· Article The Quiet Rise of Large-Scale Trading Firms in East and Southern Africa
With over 30 years of experience studying sub-Saharan Africa agricultural and resource economics, AFRE FSG University Foundation Professor Thomas Jayne and collaborators come together in this special issue of the renowned Journal of Development Studies to provide fresh analysis on Africa’s Unfolding Economic Transformation. Jayne explains that “despite the continued deep challenges that the region is facing, mounting evidence points to profound economic transformation in sub-Saharan Africa since the early 2000s.”
The contributions (Africa’s Evolving Employment Trends, The Quiet Rise of Large-Scale Traders in East and Southern Africa, Africa’s Unfolding Economic Transformation) in this special issue highlight three aspects of Africa’s unfolding economic transformation since 2000: remarkable progress for the region as a whole, highly uneven progress across countries, and unresolved questions about the sustainability of the transformations. The drivers of the region’s economic transformations are diverse, and include improved governance, strong agricultural growth in some countries, employment expansion in informal rural off-farm activities, strong local and foreign investment, a period of high global commodity prices, and policy reforms undertaken in earlier decades. Another contribution in the special issue is led by AFRE Assistant Professor Felix Kwame Yeboah, which examines the options available to African governments for addressing the region’s employment challenges for young Africans 15-35 years of age, who constitute roughly 55 percent of the region’s labor force. The Yeboah and Jayne article highlights the importance of inclusive agricultural growth as the foundation of a comprehensive youth employment strategy.
A major conclusion of the article by Jayne and colleagues is that “agricultural growth, by expanding job opportunities in the non-farm sectors through multiplier effects, is likely to remain an important driver of continued transformation, though it will increasingly need to rely on productivity growth rather than area expansion.”
Most of the research presented in this report was supported by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy.
(1) Thomas Jayne is University Foundation Professor, Michigan State University, AFRE Department
(2) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(3) International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Rome, Italy
