Africa’s economy should see a rebound in 2012 after popular uprisings and political unrest brought overall economic growth down to 3.4% in 2011. The continent is recovering from the global crisis of 2009 and this should be sustained even though a new global slowdown is constraining Africa’s growth. With the gradual recovery of North African economies, Africa´s average growth is expected to rebound to 4.5% in 2012 and to 4.8% in 2013. The international environment will remain difficult in the near term.

External and tax revenue resources available for development in Africa have tripled over the past decade and have never been so high. In 2011, external finances recovered to pre-crisis levels with foreign investment (FDI), official development assistance (ODA) and remittances estimated at USD 152.2 billion. As a share of Africa’s gross domestic product, external flows doubled from 6.8% in 2000 to 12.3% in 2006, but were still down at an estimated 8.2% in 2011.

The trend towards concluding regional and bilateral trade agreements to promote trade and development has gained momentum worldwide. Participation in some form of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) has increased within the last 20 years, with the number of active PTAs rising from 70 in 1990 to almost 300 in 2011. African countries have concluded a considerable number of agreements among themselves (24 PTAs in force) but there is no evidence of a growing number of PTAs between Africa and its emerging partners in the Americas or in Asia (although four PTAs were concluded with West Asia and three with East Asia in 2010). Some African countries belonging to the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have signed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU), making Europe the region outside Africa with the highest number of agreements with African countries (16) (WTO, 2011).

Improving quality of life in sub-Saharan Africa remains a daily struggle. The region again had the lowest aggregate level of human development indicators — life expectancy, education and standard of living — in 2011 but it had the second fastest annual increase over the period 2000-2011.

The world will remember 2011 as the year of the “Arab Spring” when people in North Africa rose up against political oppression, social inequality and a lack of economic opportunity. The revolts against autocratic regimes have empowered democratically-elected Islamist governments and parliaments in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. These new governments must now tackle the root causes of the revolutions to appease legitimate, but high expectations in the short run, while providing citizens with a real democratic alternative in the long run.