Success Stories from “Emerging Africa”

Issue Date October 2010
Volume 21
Issue 4
Page Numbers 87-101
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Since the mid-1990s, seventeen emerging countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been leaving behind the conflicts, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past and achieving steady economic growth, deepening democracy, stronger leadership, and falling poverty—and six additional African countries are showing signs that they may be on the same path. The paths of the countries that comprise “emerging Africa” are characterized by five commonalities democratic and accountable governments; the implementation of more sensible economic policies; the end of the decades-long debt crisis, and with it major changes in Africa’s relationship with the international community; the spread of new technologies that promote political accountability and create fresh business opportunities; and the emergence of a new generation of policy makers, activists, and business leaders.

About the Author

Steven Radelet holds the Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way (2010).

View all work by Steven Radelet