The Contribution of Economic Research to African Development

Africa is a big place, and economic research is a big subject. It is to be understood that I have limited first-hand experience of only a small part of Africa, and also that my research activities have dealt with only a few fields and that, in any case, I must be selective. The topic has a certain ambiguity. Presumably it should discuss the contributions that economics can make to economic development as against the contributions of other fields. It may be intended to discuss the contributions of economics as contrasted to political decisions. Or perhaps research may mean the discussion of as yet unresolved problems as compared to the application of more recent developments of economic theory.