Since 1995, seventeen African countries have defied expectations and launched a remarkable, if little-noticed, turnaround. These countries are putting behind them the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the past and replacing them with steady economic growth, deepening democracy, improved governance, and decreased poverty. 

Instead of treating sub-Saharan Africa as a monolithic entity, Steve Radelet will discuss the important differences between Africa’s emerging countries, the oil-exporters (where progress has been uneven and volatile), and the others (where there has been little progress).

Bio

Steve Radelet is chief economist for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Prior, he was a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he worked on issues related to foreign aid, developing-country debt, economic growth, and trade between rich and poor countries. Radelet also served as an economic advisor to the Government of Liberia in its debt-reduction efforts and was a founding co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN). Steve served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia from 2000 to 2002.