Meeting Report "Challenging Orthodoxies in Economic Thinking in Africa"

The document reports on a 2019 meeting in Dakar where academics, policymakers, and activists critiqued the impact of neoclassical economics and neoliberalism on Africa. Key discussions focused on the failures of Structural Adjustment Programs, the 'myth' of Africa Rising, and the exclusion of gender and care work from economic metrics like GDP. The participants proposed heterodox alternatives, including the Social and Solidarity Economy, food sovereignty, and feminist economics, while outlining a strategic roadmap for building an epistemic community to promote intellectual sovereignty and inclusive development across the continent.

• Economic orthodoxy is identified with the neoclassical economic trend and serves as the matrix for neoliberalism, manifesting through the research programs of neoclassical economy and policies implemented by Bretton Woods institutions, most notably the 'structural adjustment policies' which had 'disastrous consequences for Africa'.
• The 'Africa Rising' narrative, which highlights growth rates over 4% in 30 countries between 2000 and 2010, is characterized as a myth. This growth is described as 'recovery growth' resulting from the end of IMF austerity and a rise in raw material exports, rather than structural transformation, and it often masks 'illicit financial flows (IFFs)'.
• Orthodox economic metrics, specifically GDP, are criticized for failing to reflect living condition inequalities and for the 'abstraction of women's domestic work'. This exclusion is described as reflecting the 'phallocratic nature of orthodox economic thinking'.
• The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and the project for a single currency are analyzed as continuing neoliberal orthodoxy. The CFTA is critiqued for prioritizing 'trade exchange and not to production', while the single currency project is viewed as an imitation of the European Union that dispossesses states of economic policy instruments.
• The informal economy is presented as a 'viable alternative' and the 'real economy of African countries', where the logic of agents differs from neoclassical ontology. Participants suggested focusing on the 'Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE)' to move beyond the formal-informal dualism.
• Climate change is linked to the 'consumer society' promoted by neoliberalism, with GDP growth directly tied to environmental destruction. International agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement are critiqued for addressing the 'consequences of climate change and not to the causes'.
• Food sovereignty is proposed as a superior alternative to 'food security'. While food security is linked to orthodox agricultural policies that maximize production at the expense of small producers, food sovereignty emphasizes 'cultural, environmental or social justice nature (including land justice)' and agroecology.
• To challenge economic orthodoxy, the meeting proposed a multi-pronged strategy involving the creation of an 'epistemic community', the transformation of university curricula to be 'pro-heterodox', and the mobilization of civil society, trade unions, and social movements.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2019). Meeting Report "Challenging Orthodoxies in Economic Thinking in Africa". https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/report_challenging-orthodoxies-in-economic-thinking-in-africa.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Meeting Report "Challenging Orthodoxies in Economic Thinking in Africa". 2019. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/report_challenging-orthodoxies-in-economic-thinking-in-africa.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Meeting Report "Challenging Orthodoxies in Economic Thinking in Africa" |date=September 2019 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/report_challenging-orthodoxies-in-economic-thinking-in-africa.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2019meeting, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Meeting Report "Challenging Orthodoxies in Economic Thinking in Africa"}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2019}, month = sep, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/report_challenging-orthodoxies-in-economic-thinking-in-africa.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }