Poverty Reduction in the Course of African Development

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.

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).