Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-251) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction / Alden LeClair -- Massive, Highly Diverse, and Heterogeneous Region -- What is unique about this book? -- Assumptions and organization -- 2. Imagining Africa 40 Years from Now / Theodore Ahlers -- next 40 years -- Which Africa will emerge? -- Africa diverging -- Act now.... or accept marginalization -- Conclusion -- Capable states and pragmatic leadership -- 3. Africa's Inclusive Growth Challenge: Reducing Deprivation and Creating jobs / Louise Fox -- Introduction -- Recent developments -- Inclusive growth achievements -- Human development -- Action agenda for inclusive growth -- Conclusion -- Annex 1 -- 4. Building Human Capital: Improving Education Quality / Ritva Reinikka -- Imagining Africa in 40 years -- The role of education -- Recent trends in public spending on education -- What learning assessments tell us about quality of education -- Service Delivery Indicators -- Focus on teachers -- Conclusions and an action agenda -- Annex 1 -- 5. Transforming Rural Africa: Growing a Productive Agriculture Sector / Kevin Cleaver -- Why is African agriculture important? -- Performance of African agriculture -- Nutrition and food security -- Conclusions regarding agricultural performance in Africa -- Proximate causes for low growth of African agriculture -- More fundamental causes of poor agricultural performance -- Action agenda -- Annex 1 -- 6. Impact of Commodity Terms of Trade in Africa: Curse, Blessing, or Manageable Reality? / Ieva Vilkelyte -- Introduction -- Terms of trade and output measurement -- Developments in terms of trade, exports, and imports -- Quantification of the effects of international price shocks -- impact of commodity prices on GDP and export volumes -- Macroeconomic implications of the terms of trade effect -- Policy requirements in the new world of low commodity prices -- prospects for commodities in the medium term -- Concluding remarks -- Annex 1 Country classification by export concentration -- Annex 2 Measurement of trading gains and losses -- Annex 3 prospects for commodities in the medium term -- 7. Economic Diversification of African Economies / James Bond -- Africa has not industrialized -- Industrialization as part of Africa's development history -- Reasons for lack of industrialization in Africa -- Possible policy directions for Africa's economic diversification -- Africa's economic transformation -- An agenda for action -- Annex 1 -- 8. Africa's Infrastructure Deficit: Closing the Gap / James Bond -- Africa's infrastructure -- An overview -- Future infrastructure requirements and financing needs -- Action agenda -- Annex 1 African infrastructure financing commitments, 2015 -- 9. Urbanization and Demographics: Planning Cities That Work / Gregory K. Ingram -- Introduction -- Current population and income levels -- Projections of total populations to 2050 -- Projected changes in demographic composition -- Projected increases in urban populations -- Urban population densities -- Projected increases in urbanized land area -- Planning urban infrastructure -- Financing infrastructure investment and raising local revenue -- Addressing climate change -- New technologies and smart cities -- Conclusion -- Annex 1 Classification of countries into nine groups -- Annex 2 Random sample of 25 African cities -- 10. Regional Economic Integration in Africa / Hasan Tuluy -- Introduction -- challenge for Africa -- Constraint of initial conditions should favor economic integration -- Regional integration is a founding principle of African Union -- Constraints to deeper economic integration -- way forward: Action agenda -- Conclusion -- 11. New Threats to Africa's Stability and Growth / Serge Michailof -- Africa is doing better than 15 years ago -- What are the threats? -- How should the new threats be confronted? -- agenda for facing these new threats is ambitious and hard to implement.

Emphasizing the need for urgency, this work assesses the challenges and provides concrete policy recommendations that can be taken by Africa's leaders and citizens in the key areas to reset their economic trajectory, achieve their desired convergence, and meet the aspirations of their people. The point of departure of this manuscript is where Africa can be 40 years from now. -- Provided by publisher.