Why Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It?

Why Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It? Learn about a surprising and uncomfortable answer.
Mills, Greg
24026
978-0-14-352809-8
In stock
new
€19.95 *

Title: TWhy Africa is Poor
Subtitle: And What Africans Can Do About It?
Author: Greg Mills
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Penguin Books
Cape Town, South Africa 2011
ISBN 9780143528098 / ISBN 978-0-14-352809-8
Softcover, 13 x 20 cm, 511 pages

About: Why Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It?

Economic growth does not demand a secret formula. Good development examples now abound in East Asia and further afield in others parts of Asia, and in Central America. But why then has Africa failed to realise its potential in half a century of independence? Why Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It? demonstrates that Africa is poor not because the world has denied the continent the market and financial means to compete: far from it. It has not been because of aid per se.

Nor is African poverty solely a consequence of poor infrastructure or trade access, or because the necessary development and technical expertise is unavailable internationally. Why then has the continent lagged behind other developing areas when its people work hard and the continent is blessed with abundant natural resources? Stomping across the continent and the developing world in search of the answer, Greg Mills controversially shows that the main reason why Africa's people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.

Dr Greg Mills heads The Brenthurst Foundation, established in Johannesburg in 2005 by the Oppenheimer family and dedicated to improving Africa's economic performance. From 1994-2005 he worked at the South African Institute of International Affairs, serving as its national director for a decade. He has lectured at universities and institutions in Africa and abroad from Australia to Zimbabwe, including the Pentagon, the Peruvian, Malaysian and Chilean Military Staff Colleges, the Confederation of Indian Industries, the Singaporean and Argentine Foreign Ministries, the United Nations and the African Union, is on the visiting staff of the NATO Higher Defence College in Rome and the Royal College of Defence Studies in London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Greg Mills has published over 25 books. A graduate of the universities of Cape Town and Lancaster where from 2011 he will be Visiting Professor of Strategic Studies and Choices, he serves as a Research Associate of the Centre for Defence and International Security Studies (CDISS), and as a Member of Council and Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI). A Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), he sits on a number of international editorial and advisory boards.

During 2006, based in Kabul, he was seconded as the special adviser to the Commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General David Richards. Proving his tenacity, if a few things else, he redeployed on a short-term secondment to the multinational forces in Afghanistan in April-May and September 2010. During 2008 he served as Strategy Adviser to the President of Rwanda. For 2008-09 Greg Mills was appointed as a Commissioner on the Danish Prime Minister's Africa Commission.

Content: Why Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It?

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
The Drivers of Growth
The Essence of Development
The African Record
How Africa Works
Doing the Aid Faranga
'Physician, Heal Thyself!'
Making Better Choices

Endnotes
About the Author
Selected Index