The study’s main intention was to generate knowledge to enhance the efficacy of Africa’s political economy and development pathways by identifying alternative macroeconomic policy and institutional options that can be deployed to enable
deeper socioeconomic transformation. So a key question: “What can Africa do to ensure inclusive growth?” This study finds that there is need to revisit macroeconomic policy and institutions in Sub-Saharan countries taking into account the lessons from other regions that have performed well such as Southeast Asia.
The Southeast Asia experience engenders sharper focus on the role of the “developmental state,” a major ideological rallying point for those who wish to contest the appropriateness of neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus. In essence, we ask: What is the state’s appropriate role in the context of a renewed quest for rapid Sub-Saharan growth? The main message from the paper is that the impressive economic growth in several countries should be made sufficiently inclusive so that many people throughout these countries begin to enjoy the access to basic social and economic services and opportunities that the middle and upper classes in the society take for granted. Almost all the case studies
in this paper confirm this development aspect.
