This handbook has been prepared as part of the UNCTAD project on "Developing local capacities for the identification of growth opportunities through resource mobilization". The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of African countries to identify and utilise efficiently non-debt-creating domestic resources in order to meet the MDGs, especially the first goal of halving poverty rates by 2015.

The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the tension between large development needs in infrastructure and scarce public resources. To alleviate this tension and promote a strong and job-rich recovery from the crisis, Africa needs to mobilize more financing from and to the private sector.

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

3. Investing in people.