Skip to main content
Log in

In Quest of the Right to Development: Prospects for an African Financial Architecture

  • Thematic Section
  • Published:
Development Aims and scope

Abstract

The African Financial Architecture holds the potential of enabling the countries of the continent to exercise their right to development. From helping to overcome a history of lop-sided dependence to providing a framework and primary resources for African countries to better master their development priorities, the proposed Architecture could become an important game changer in the African regional integration project, and the continent’s relationship with the international order. However, to fulfil its promise, and especially in order not to simply become a glorified clone of international financial institutions, it is imperative that the politics of a continental rebirth that underpinned the initial framing and adoption of the Architecture is urgently rediscovered and fully embraced. For, in the end, the quest to build an African Financial Architecture is primarily about reshuffling relations of power between Africa and the contemporary global economic order in order to enhance the prospects of continental socio-economic transformation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abegunrin, Olayiwola. 2009. From Organization of African Unity to African Union, in Africa in Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • African Union. 2017. Pan-African Financial Institutions. Addis Ababa: African Union - Department of Economic Affairs.

  • Asiwaju, Anthony. 1985. Partitioned Africans: Ethnic Relations Across Africa’s International Boundaries. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradlow, Daniel, and William N. Kring. 2019. Why the African Monetary Fund is a Good Idea and What can be Done to Get it Going, The Conversation, 5 July.

  • Cervenka, Zdenek. 1976. Africa and the New International Economic Order, Law and Politics in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 9(2): 187-199.

  • Dagah, Hadiza Gagara, Daniel Bradlow, and William N. Kring. 2019. Jump-Starting the African Monetary Fund, GEIC Policy Brief 008, 07.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engelbert, Pierre, and Kevin C. Dunn. 2013. Inside African Politics. Boulder, Co.: Lynne Reinner.

  • Erasmus, Gerhard. 2021. Economic Integration is a Challenge: Can Variable Geometry Help?, TRALAC, 3 June.

  • Gadha, Maha Ben, Fadhel Kaboub, Kai Koddenbrock, Ines Mahmoud, and Ndongo Samba Sylla. 2022. Economic and Montary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halliday, Ewan. 2021. The African Monetary Fund: Needed More than Ever, The McGill Global Review, 8 March.

  • Ikome, Francis. 2004. From the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD): The Political Economy of African Regional Initiatives, PhD Thesis, University of the Witswatersrand.

  • Mkandawire, Thandika, and Adebayo Olukoshi (eds.). 1995. The Politics of Structural Adjustment in Africa: Between Liberalisation and Oppression. Dakar: CODESRIA Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mkandawire, Thandika, and Charles Soludo. 1998. Our Continent, Our Future. Dakar: CODESRIA Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, K.C. 1984. The New International Economic Order and Africa. Africa Development 9(1): 5–3, January—March.

  • Nkrumah, Kwame. 1970. Africa Must Unite. New York: International Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oloruntoba, Samuel O., and Mammo Muchie (eds.). 2019., Innovation, Regional Integration, and Development in Africa. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olukoshi, Adebayo. 1996. Structural Adjustment and Socio-Economic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Conceptual, Methodological and Research Issues, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Research Report No. 102, Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute: 101.

  • Pigeaud, Fanny, and Ndongo Samba Sylla. 2020. Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodney, Walter. 1972. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle L’Ouverture Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, Amos, Afeikhena Jerome, and Ejeviome Eloho Otobo. 2015. African Development in the 21st Century: Adebayo Adedeji’s Theories and Contributions. Addis Ababa: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

  • The South Commission. 1990. The Challenge of the South: The Report of the South Commission. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trivedi, Sonu. 2009. African Unity: The Move Forward, World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, 13(1): 12-30.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNECA. 1980. Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic Development of Africa, 1980–2000. Addis Ababa: UNECA.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adebayo Olukoshi.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Olukoshi, A. In Quest of the Right to Development: Prospects for an African Financial Architecture. Development 65, 153–160 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-022-00353-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-022-00353-0

Keywords

Navigation