Diversification: towards a new paradigm for Africa’s development

This paper is articulated around the following chapters. After this introduction, the first chapter will underscore Africa’s development stakes. This analysis will enable us to tackle the problem of modernizing and diversifying the productive fabric of African economies. The second chapter will be devoted to the recent renewal of the diversification problem. It will enable us to underscore the new concerns and the development of the debate on this issue since the failure of the experiences of the 1970’s. The third chapter will be devoted to the presentation and the discussion of diversification gauging tools. The fourth chapter will present facts connected to the diversification of African economies. In this chapter, we took a comparative approach that would allow us to put into perspective the different sub-regional experiences as well as link Africa’s economic history in comparison to that of Asia and Latin America. In the fifth chapter, we will abandon the descriptive approach in favour of analytical elements and attempt to determine factors justifying diversification. This approach will be reflected upon in detail in the sixth chapter where we will focus our attention on the relation between diversification and economic growth. Finally, in the last chapter we will look into formulating economic policy recommendations for African countries in the area of diversification.