Economic and social development

Abstract

This survey, which contains a description and classification of plans and policies in about twenty African countries and territories, confirms the observation of the experts that, with the notable exception of the plans of a few countries in North Africa, most African development plans are public capital expenditure programmes which do not contain projections, objectives or targets for the private sector. The article points out, however, that most countries have reached a stage whore it becomes more and more difficult to say in what direction an economy should be guided to achieve its fastest rate of growth or to foresee where bottlenecks may develop and that, consequently, many governments have moved towards the acceptance of a more comprehensive conception of planning and economic policy, which they are now intending to put into effect.