IngentaConnect Institutions and Poverty Alleviation in Africa

Author: Mbaku, John Mukum¹

Source: African and Asian Studies, Volume 6, Numbers 1-2, 2007 , pp. 107-134(28)

Publisher: BRILL

Abstract:

The most urgent policy issue in Africa today is how to create the wealth that each African country needs to deal effectively with poverty and high levels of material deprivation. Efforts, since the early 1960s to deal with poverty in the continent, have emphasized government redistributive programs. The results have been quite disappointing, as Africa remains one of the poorest regions of the world, despite the continent's significantly large endowments of human and natural resources. Since the late 1980s, poverty alleviation efforts on the continent have shifted emphasis from government redistributive programs to wealth creation. The key is to provide each economy with an institutional environment that enhances entrepreneurship (especially among historically marginalized and deprived groups) and maximizes the creation of the wealth that can be used to deal with poverty. Such an institutional environment should also promote peaceful coexistence of each country's various population groups, effectively accommodate minority interests, and adequately constrain the state.

Keywords: POVERTY ALLEVIATION; INSTITUTIONS; ENTREPRENEURSHIP; ECONOMIC FREEDOM; WEALTH CREATION; DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION MAKING

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1163/156921007X180604

Affiliations: 1: Department of Economics, Weber State University, 3807 University Circle, Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA

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