Financing Innovation and Sustainable Development in Africa

This book derives from a symposium held at Cornell University in April 2014. The symposium explored development financing, which has become an important area of policy discussion in Africa and other developing areas in recent years. Using multifaceted and multidisciplinary analytical approaches, it considers the role of the banking system, the stock market, credit access, external aid, and sovereign wealth funds in the evolving development finance architecture. Further, the volume looks at China’s role as an aid donor, the impact of BRICs partnerships in South Africa, the role of NEPAD in mobilizing resources for infrastructure development, and the links between law, trade, and regional integration. The study concurs with previous analyses that greater access to credit by the poor represents the most effective way of fighting poverty and raising the standards of living in Africa. Cornell’s Institute for African Development and the African Development Bank were cosponsors of the 2014 symposium.