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Does democratization increase economic output? Answers to this question are inconsistent partly due to the challenges of examining the causal forces behind political and economic phenomena that occur at the national level. We employ a new empirical approach, the synthetic control method, to study the economic effects of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1975–2008. This method yields case-specific causal estimates, which show that political reform associated with the "third wave" of democracy had highly heterogeneous, yet often substantively important effects in Africa. In some countries democratization adversely affected economic output while in others it exerted an analogous positive effect.

Intro -- FACTORS AFFECTING CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN SUB-SAHARANAFRICA -- Copyright -- Preface -- Contents -- Executive Summary -- KEY ISSUES -- FINDINGS -- 1 Introduction -- THE CONTRACEPTIVE REVOLUTION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD -- CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA -- Historical Factors Leading to High Fertility -- Family Planning Initiatives -- Potential Effect of AIDS on Contraceptive Use -- Implications of the Rise in Contraceptive Use -- LEVELS OF SOCIOECONOMIC ORGANIZATION AFFECTING CONTRACEPTIVE USE -- National Level -- Regional Level -- Community, Kinship, and Household -- Individual Level -- ORGANIZATION OF REPORT -- 2 Levels and Trends in Contraceptive Use -- SOURCES OF DATA ON CONTRACEPTIVE USE -- DEFINITION OF CONTRACEPTIVE USE -- PREVALENCE OF CURRENT CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN SELECTED COUNTRIES -- Results from Demographic and Health Surveys Conducted from 1986 to 1990 -- Results of WFS, CPS, and Other Surveys, 1975-1990 -- Trends in Modern Contraceptive Prevalence -- Differentials in Use -- Reason for Use: Spacing Versus Limiting -- OTHER INDICATORS RELATED TO CONTRACEPTIVE PRACTICE -- Ever Use of a Modern Method -- Discontinuation -- Knowledge of a Modern Contraceptive Method -- Sources of Modern Contraceptive Methods -- Fertility Preferences -- RESULTS FROM MALE SURVEYS -- CONCLUSION -- 3 The Socioeconomic Context -- SOCIOECONOMIC DIFFERENTIALS OF FERTILITY -- National-Level Relationships -- Mortality -- Educational Attainment of Adults -- Schooling of Children: The Quantity-Quality Trade-Off -- The Combined Relation of Per Capita Income, Mortality, Education, and Fertility -- Household-Level Research -- EVIDENCE ON CHANGES IN CHILD MORTALITY -- Links to Fertility -- EVIDENCE ON CHANGES IN THE QUANTITY-QUALITY TRADE-OFF -- Opportunity Costs of Schooling -- Direct Costs -- Perceived Benefits of Schooling.

On 6 July 1989 the US government announced its intention to cancel official debts owed by sub-Saharan African countries. The importance of this pronouncement is that these countries may now channel trade surpluses that had previously been applied to servicing the debt into revitalizing their impoverished economies. Here, an attempt is made to find out whether, for these countries, there are significant growth prospects after debt relief, via analysis of World Bank data for 1975-1985. The conditions that led up to the debt problems, what effects the debt problems have had on their economies, & how much more viable or vulnerable their economies are, are examined. It is concluded that prospects for growth are uncertain because the underlying forces -- ie, economic dependency on other economies & its destabilizing effects on growth objectives, the mismanagement of their economies, & political upheavals -- that contributed to economic ills are still present. 3 Tables. AA

Addressing an under-studied aspect of U.S. foreign policy towards sub-Saharan Africa, Roshen Hendrickson provides a critical historical analysis of efforts to promote private investment in the region since World War II. The author investigates the role of institutions such as the United States Agency for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and bills such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act. She draws attention to the way strategic factors, domestic pressures and ideas about the role of U.S. investment in Africa influenced policymakers during the Cold War and post Cold War periods. Examples of government assistance to private investors highlight trends in bilateral policies and point to the necessity for the United States to contribute to global governance that will enable private investment to play a role in promoting sustainable economic growth in Africa

Mozambique is an economic success story in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Its remarkable achievements offer valuable lessons to other low-income countries in a post-stabilization economic phase, including how they can efficiently manage a scaling up of foreign aid aimed at poverty reduction. Of special interest to other Sub-Saharan countries are the book's discussions of Mozambique's progress toward consolidating macroeconomic and financial stability, and the challenges it faces in ensuring long-term sustainability, creating a virtuous cycle of natural resource use, and implementing second-generation structural reforms to sustain its growth. This book also provides a summary of the most recent research on issues related to post-stabilization economics in SSA

Abstract: "The Sahrawi people, who have long lived in the western part of the Sahara, have been housed in refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, since 1975 - the year that Morocco took de facto control of Western Sahara. Their situation poses many questions, including those regarding the status of their state-in-exile, the role of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and the length of their displacement. The conditions in the Tindouf camps present a paradigmatic case study of the liminal space inhabited by long-term refugees. Over the decades, residents have transformed these camps into a state-like structure with their own political and administrative institutions, which has enabled the international community to gain time to search for an acceptable political solution to the long-term conflict between the Polisario Front (the Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement) and the Moroccan government. The existence of a state-like structure, however, should not itself be understood as the ultimate solution for the thousands of people in these camps, who are currently living in extreme poverty, surviving on increasingly meager international aid, and enduring an exceptionally long wait for the favorable conditions whereby they may return to their place of origin."

Conflict and insecurity continue to dominate the defence and security debate across much of the continent. Since the fall of the Gadhafi regime in Libya in 2011, weaponry, mercenaries and armed groups have spread across the Sahel region. Some of the Tuareg tribesmen who rose up against the Malian government in January 2012, for example, have returned from fighting in Libya in possession of relatively sophisticated arms. The government's weak handling of this rebellion led to a coup in March, and the subsequent takeover of northern Mali by Islamists. In November 2012, the African Union (AU) approved the deployment of 3,300 troops, led by the Western African regional grouping ECOWAS, to help the Malian government regain control of its territory, but the details of the intervention were still being discussed. Islamist groups also caused growing concern in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and particularly Nigeria, where the Boko Haram sect continued its bombing campaign. Adapted from the source document.

Conflict and insecurity continue to dominate the defence and security debate across much of the continent. Since the fall of the Gadhafi regime in Libya in 2011, weaponry, mercenaries and armed groups have spread across the Sahel region. Some of the Tuareg tribesmen who rose up against the Malian government in January 2012, for example, have returned from fighting in Libya in possession of relatively sophisticated arms. The government's weak handling of this rebellion led to a coup in March, and the subsequent takeover of northern Mali by Islamists. In November 2012, the African Union (AU) approved the deployment of 3,300 troops, led by the Western African regional grouping ECOWAS, to help the Malian government regain control of its territory, but the details of the intervention were still being discussed. Islamist groups also caused growing concern in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and particularly Nigeria, where the Boko Haram sect continued its bombing campaign. Adapted from the source document.