Editors’ Note In the early 2000s, Africa experienced an economic turnaround when macroeconomic stability and growth rates improved, and large and fast-growing economies like Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa became known as ‘lion economies’. At that time, there was much optimism about the prospects for the continent. That upward momentum, however, has been derailed by various factors. The first economic shock that put the brakes on high growth rates was the commodity price crash of 2015 (see Figure 1). Not too long after, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The pandemic had unprecedented economic consequences in Africa: real growth rates plunged to negative figures; poverty and unemployment rose; and countries fell into deep debt. The Ukraine-Russia war followed close on the heels of the pandemic and exacerbated the continent’s food insecurity and undernutrition. At present, 57.9 percent of Africa’s population (or about 868 million people) are experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity. [1] Indeed, much of the development gains of the last two decades have been reversed and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) today seem unattainable. African countries are also suffering a disproportionate burden of the consequences of climate change despite making the least contribution to global carbon emissions. Africa’s security challenges are also plenty—more than 35 armed conflicts are ongoing, [2] killing thousands and displacing over 40 million [3] people so far—and these conflicts are compounding the challenges to development goals.
Authors
Mentioned Organizations
- Attribution
- Malancha Chakrabarty and Lukhanyo Neer, Eds., After the Great Fall: Revival and Restoration in Africa , November 2024, Observer Research Foundation. ISBN Paperback: 978-81-19656-40-0 ISBN Digital: 978-81-19656-26-4
- Pages
- 156
- Published in
- India
