By Beatus Kagashe
The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Market failures and government policy distortions have been  cited as general causes of poor growth in many African countries.A new World Bank report also shows that successful nations on the continent whose economies are on a rebound have tended to deploy collective and home grown actions deliberately charted to avoid a repeat of past mistakes.

Titled Yes Africa Can: Success Stories from a Dynamic Continent, the report was released in Dar es Salaam yesterday, as was the case in several other capitals, through a video-conference from the WB headquarters in Washington DC.

It involved 26 case studies, including 20 that were national in scope and six for multiple countries. It also covered places, such as war-torn Somalia and Tanzania, whose economic growth are among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The WB regional chief economist for Africa, Mr Shanta Devarajan, said the study was meant to look beyond the often painted monolithic picture of Africa. It was also meant to bring out the successful experience to be shared and replicated among nations.

“Overall, the case studies show that success was driven by collective action, usually but not always, led by governments to either overcome or avoid failures of the past,” he said.

Lead economist and the report book’s main editor, Ms Punam Chuhanpole, said that while market failures could be corrected by creating incentives for desired outcomes, governments’ failures were more difficult to address “because it is usually harder to dislodge powerful individuals who are benefiting from the status quo.”

Mr Devarajan noted that bad policies did not seem to persist in nations with strong political checks and balances. He said innovation, dynamism and the enduring spirit of the people were some of the features driving successful reforms.

Asked why in the case of Tanzania economic benefits were slow in seeping to the rural masses ravaged by poverty, the official said lack of requisite infrastructure and insufficient energy supply were some of the inhibiting factors. He said poor agricultural investment was another factor.

Mr Devarajan said Tanzania’s economic growth has averaged six per cent, which was above the rates for sub-Sahara African countries. “A lot has been done, but there is still more left to  translate the success across the board,” he said.