Development finance is one of the foremost challenges facing African Countries and the international community in the new century. African countries in particular have experience modest economic recovery during the 19990s. Vijay S. Makhan explores these improvements, while describing the "vicious circle" in which the economic structure cannot generate enough savings and export earnings needed to finance the development and mount a sustained assault on poverty.

African countries have experienced modest economic recovery during the 1990s. But these countries are caught in a vicious circle in which the existing economic structure cannot generate enough savings and export earnings needed to finance their development and mount a sustained assault on widespread poverty. Yet foreign aid has been cut back sharply and the continent receives only a trickle of foreign investment flows. New policy regimes are now in place, creating the right environment for external financing to make a major difference. Development finance is one of the foremost challenges facing African countries and the international community in the new century.