Africa
At the dawn of the millennium, there was much hope in Africa for sustainable development.
The birth of the AU and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) signalled a new “social contract” for Africa. With commodity booms, there was a moment when those African nations endowed with mineral resources were on a pathway to achieving their UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Sadly, a vicious cycle of regional conflicts, civil wars, the global financial crisis of 2008-9 and the collapse of World Trade Organization’s Doha develop- ment talks put an abrupt end to a viable African industrial development pathway and opened
