Annual Lecture by Henrietta Moore challenges current thinking about economic growth and development

Watch the video of this lecture (1 h 27 min). Scroll down for photos.

In the 2018 Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture ‘What is prosperity for Africa?’, Prof. Henrietta Moore, Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity, questioned current ways of thinking about economic growth, prosperity and development. ‘How does economic growth translate into sustainable prosperity? Economic growth needs new academic modelling.’ She advocated looking at quality of life, by taking sustainable use of resources specifically into account.

Prof. Moore quoted Stephen Ellis, our prolific ASC colleague who died in 2015, in whose honour the lecture is organized annually: ‘Scholars have generally found it difficult to develop both a theory and a method for studying the economies of Africa as they actually function, as opposed to how they are officially deemed to function. The discrepancy between theoretical models in general use and the reality of economic life in Africa has increased considerably as a consequence of the liberalisation of African economies carried out since the 1970s.’ (1997)

Prof. Moore painted the major problems Africa faces, with 400 million people currently living in poverty, and an estimated 15-20 million youth that should be absorbed in the labour market in the next 30 years. Turning the economy around according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could offer a framework for ‘sustainable prosperity’, she said. ‘It’s a new social contract’. The SDGs offer business opportunities that could create millions of jobs, especially in the agricultural sector. An example of a sustainable solution is farming that is locally produced, locally informed and embedded by local governments.

While energy rich countries have put the world on a dangerous high-carbon trajectory, Africa could become the global leader in low-carbon development. ‘It has to’, Prof. Moore said, ‘in order to get its population connected to the power grid’.

The event started with a presentation of the impressive Stephen Ellis Bibliography by Jos Damen of the ASCL Library.

Take a look at Prof. Moore's presentation.