Poverty Reduction in the Course of African Development

Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Muna Ndulo

Examines poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa over recent decades
Maps a poverty profile in Africa
Includes three country case studies: Kenya, Senegal, and Zambia
Advances the dynamics of pro-poor growth and poverty reduction for inclusive development

Poverty Reduction in the Course of African Development

Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Muna Ndulo

Description

In light of the opportunities and the challenges facing African economies in the 21st century, this edited volume traces the evolution of poverty in the course of economic development in sub-Saharan Africa over the recent decades. By engaging with, and seeking to develop on, the work of Professor Erik Thorbecke, it examines the evolving dynamics of poverty in multiple dimensions. It also discusses how to lay down foundations for improved governance and institutions that will realize inclusive development in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the volume contributes to our understanding of dynamics of pro-poor growth and pro-growth poverty reduction, and to the on-going policy and academic debates on how to overcome fragility and vulnerability and secure inclusive development through socio-economic transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. The volume is divided into four parts; two overview chapters in Part 1 set out a common theme running through the volume. Four chapters in Part II examine an evolution of the poverty profile in different dimensions in sub-Saharan Africa since the new millennium. Part III presents three country case studies of tracing poverty dynamics under a country-specific institutional and policy environment. Part IV consists of three chapters, each of which addresses the question of how to advance an inclusive development agenda in sub-Saharan Africa, but from three different perspectives: structural changes, a governance framework, and an institutional foundation.

Poverty Reduction in the Course of African Development

Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Muna Ndulo

Part I. Overview
1. Introduction: Tracing Poverty Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recent Progress and Future Challenges, Machiko Nissanke
2. The Employment Problem in Developing Countries: A Re-examination Four Decades Later, Gary S. Fields
Part II. Evolving Poverty Profile in Africa
3. Growth, Inequality, and Poverty Reduction: Africa in a Global Setting, Augustin Kwasi Fosu
4. Recent Evidence on Progress on Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1990, Andy McKay
5. Multidimensional Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Levels and Trends, Sabina Alkire and Bouba Housseini
6. An Incidence Analysis of Recent Child Health and Education Improvements in Africa, David E. Sahn and Stephen D. Younger
Part III. Tracing Poverty Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Country Case Studies
7. Growth, Poverty and Inequality Nexus: Evidence from Kenya, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, Domisiano Mwabu, and Godfrey Ndeng'e
8. Who Remained in Poverty, Who Moved Up, and Who Fell Down? An Investigation of Poverty Dynamics in Senegal in the Late 2000s, Hai-Anh H. Dang, Peter F. Lanjouw, and Rob Swinkels
9. Impacts of Subsidized Hybrid Seed on Indicators of Economic Well-being among Smallholder Maize Growers in Zambia, Nicole M. Mason and Melinda Smale
Part IV. Structure, Governance and Institutions for Inclusive Development
10. Changing Structure in South Africa: A Structural Path Analysis, Rob Davies
11. Governance and Sustainable Economic and Social Development, Muna Ndulo
12. A Quest for Institutional Foundations towards Inclusive Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, Machiko Nissanke

Poverty Reduction in the Course of African Development

Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Muna Ndulo

Author Information

Machiko Nissanke is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she taught graduate courses in international and financial economics from 1993 to 2015. She previously worked at the University of Oxford, Birkbeck College, and University College London. She was Research Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and the Overseas Development Institute. Her research interests include finance and development, international economics (trade and finance), globalization and its impacts on inequality and poverty, debt dynamics and macroeconomic management, institutional economics, comparative economic development in Asia and Africa, and North-South and South-South economic relations. Her publication includes 13 books, numerous articles in academic journals, book chapters, and reports by the World Bank and the UN agencies. She has served many international organizations as adviser and coordinator of multi-year research programmes.

Muna Ndulo is Professor of Law and Elizabeth and Arthur Reich Director of the Leo and Arvilla Berger International Legal Studies Program at Cornell Law School, and Director of Cornell University's Institute for African Development. He is also Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Cape Town and Extra Ordinary Professor of Law at Free State University. He was formerly Professor of Law and Dean of the School of Law at the University of Zambia. He served as Legal Officer in the International Trade Law branch of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) from 1986 to 1995. He has carried out several UN assignments in South Africa, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and East Timor. More recently, he has been a consultant to the constitution-making processes in Kenya, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. He has published 14 books and over 100 articles in academic journals. He is the founder of the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR).

Contributors:

Sabina Alkire, University of Oxford
Hai-Anh H. Dang, World Bank
Rob Davies, economist
Gary S. Fields, Cornell University
Augustin Kwasi Fosu, University of Ghana
Bouba Housseini, University of Oxford
Jane Kabubo-Mariara, University of Nairobi
Peter F. Lanjouw, Vrije Universiteit
Nicole M. Mason, Michigan State University
Andy McKay, University of Sussex
Domisiano Mwabu, consultant and researcher
Godfrey Ndeng'e, United Nations
Muna Ndulo, Cornell University
Machiko Nissanke, SOAS, University of London
David E. Sahn, Cornell University
Melinda Smale, Michigan State University
Rob Swinkels, World Bank
Stephen D. Younger, Ithaca College

Poverty Reduction in the Course of African Development

Edited by Machiko Nissanke and Muna Ndulo

Reviews and Awards

"This book-a selection of papers from a conference in honor of Erik Thorbecke, perhaps the most distinguished scholar of poverty and income distribution in Africa-shows that the relationship between growth and poverty in Africa is much more nuanced and varied, especially when considering broader definitions of poverty. It delves into the more complex relationship between growth and poverty through case studies of Kenya, Senegal, and Zambia as well as a "reexamination" of the main mechanism by which growth affects poverty, namely employment, by one of the most distinguished contributors to that topic, Gary Fields. Finally, the book addresses the underlying factors governing the growth-poverty relationship, governance and institutions. ... taken together, the chapters paint a rich, subtle, and highly differentiated picture of the dynamics of poverty in the world's poorest continent-a fitting tribute to Erik Thorbecke." --Shantayanan Devarajan, Journal of Economic Literature