Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa

After many years of disappointing performance, Sub-Saharan Africa has shown impressive growth performance since the start of the millenium. However, the impact of this on poverty reduction is still not well understood and this led the African Economics Research Consortium in Nairobi to undertake a major collaborative research project on the linkages between growth and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. This volume is based on research undertaken by world leading researchers on major issues influencing the extent to which growth can translate into poverty reduction. The volume includes two review chapters on the impact of growth on poverty reduction, and on the impact of widespread poverty on economic growth, and argues that both relationships are important for understanding how growth and poverty reduction interact. The volume focuses, in detail, on the role of agriculture, the labour market, the informal sector, the industrial sector, the global context, and macroeconomic issues. All chapters comprise an extensive review of the existing literature and highlight new and important directions. As more information on the evolution of poverty and living conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa emerge, this volume is important in helping to interpret and explain that evidence.

Andy McKay is Professor of Development Economics at the University of Sussex where he teaches masters and PhD students in different fields of development economics. He has recently become managing editor of the Review of Development Economics; and is closely associated with the African Economic Research Consortium as a resource person and as co-coordinator of their collaborative project on the growth-poverty nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was associate director of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre from 2005-2011; he recently obtained research grants for two projects looking at female labour supply in relation to poverty reduction, much of this in Sub-Saharan Africa. Erik Thorbecke is a renowned development economist who has made major contributions in many fields in the areas of economic and agricultural development, the measurement and analysis of poverty and malnutrition (including the seminal Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty index), the social accounting matrix/ general equilibrium modeling, and international economic policy. This includes major contributions on the impact of growth, globalization, and many policy factors on poverty reduction. He has been associated with the African Economic Research Consortium almost from its outset as a resource person and through being involved in many of their projects. Among these he made major contributions to capacity building in the analysis of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa through a collaborative project in that area.