A pioneering work, full of detail and depth of knowledge about Africa … a must read! Two powerful forces converged to shift global development in the last three decades from the West to the East and Asia. These same forces now make Africa the construction site of the century. Africa in the decade 2040- 2050 will have a population of 2.5 billion people. Together with China and India, Africa will surely affect our planet’s future! Africans are and will continue to be the beneficiaries of two dramatic global transformations: first, the shift of wealth from the West to the East and the South; second, the impact of the universalization of the digital age. The OECD stated that the first transformation is
… the most important shift in the history of humanity; the second marks the emergence of new forms of human civilization … This book documents these transformations now taking hold in Africa, however incomplete, unequal and difficult. But these changes are robust and decisive. In Africa, like everywhere else in the world, strategies and actions must be put into place to seize the moment which is so unique in global history. –Jean-Louis Roy, from the Introduction