The Endogenous Factors That Hold Africa Back

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After the colonial administration was replaced by independent states, they continue in most cases to treat the population as subjects rather than citizens. If you have one large portion of your population that doesn't even have ideas or birth certificates, basically civil registration, it's a very interesting indicator that you really are not treating them as subjects. The second factor that I think people normally point is one that I already mentioned, but maybe I will go deeper. The community depends is really the result of a lack of ambition. And a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have an elite that is rent seeking in terms of its behavior.

Cohost Janet Bush talks with Carlos Lopes. He is a professor in the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town. He’s also an affiliate professor at Sciences Po, Paris, an associate fellow in the Africa Program at Chatham House, and a member of the African Union reform team. Lopes was the policy director for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. He serves as an advisor on MGI’s research on Africa, including our latest report, which discusses the continent’s human capital and natural resources and how they can help to accelerate productivity and reimagine Africa’s economic growth. His views are his own. In this podcast, he covers topics including the following: