The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development

The Commission on Growth and Development released its final report,The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development,which looks at how developing countries can achieve fast sustained and equitable growth.

According to the Commission, fast sustained growth is not a miracle; it is attainable for developing countries with the "right mix of ingredients." Countries need leaders who are committed to achieving growth and who can take advantage of opportunities from the global economy. They also need to know about the levels of incentives and public investments that are necessary for private investment to take off and ensure the long-term diversification of the economy and its integration in the global economy.

The Growth Report also offers specific recommendations for Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, both of which face challenges to sustained growth. Sub-Saharan Africa must contend with “unhelpful borders, bequeathed by colonialism, and the mixed blessing of unusually rich natural resources.” In Latin America, countries with incomes as high as $4,000 a head “nevertheless contain large numbers of poor people, who lack access to formal jobs, capital markets and public services.”

Among the advice for Sub-Saharan Africa: encourage regional cooperation and regional integration—seen as particularly important for landlocked countries; give citizens access to secure channels for saving and credit; and adopt best practices for the exploitation of natural resources.

The Commission also calls for industrialized countries to grant African countries time-bound trade preferences to manufactured exports to help them overcome the disadvantages of being late starters, and to finance the expansion of Africa’s tertiary education to make up for brain drain.

Latin America needs to increase savings rates and to transition to a more knowledge and capital-intensive economy, says the report. While middle income countries in Latin America demonstrate that growth is not sufficient in itself to reduce poverty, progress can be made by redistributing income, assets or access to services, it adds.

“I do believe that a lot is gained by generating inclusiveness, by making sure that growth is widely shared,” says Nobel Laureate Robert Solow. “Leadership and governance cannot do the job by itself unless it can generate support from wide parts of the population.”

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