The World Bank for Africa or the World Bank for the World Bank?

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa saw faster economic growth in the years immediately preceding the 2009 world economic crisis than ever before in history. From 2003 to 2008 the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa grew at an average annual per capita rate of 4 percent,¹ compared with averages in the preceding decades (going back in time) of -0.5 percent, -0.8 percent, 0.9 percent, and 1 percent.² Nevertheless, in 2009 there were 265 million hungry people in Africa,³ 32 percent of the region’s population,⁴ also more than ever before in history. The region’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was only $669 a year, or $405 excluding Nigeria and South Africa.⁵ Moreover, the continent was maintaining a reputation for terrible atrocities and enormous human suffering—from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda in the 1990s to the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan in the 2000s. In two of Africa’s leading economies, Botswana and South Africa, 24 percent and 18 percent of their respective adult populations were infected with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) virus,⁶ and Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, with 150 million people, had squandered a fortune in oil revenue through corruption and mismanagement.