‘Liberate The Energies Of Our Communities’

AS THE SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF THE African Development Bank (AfDB) serving two terms until 2015, Dr Donald Kaberuka led the development and economic integration of the continent. As the African Union High Representative for the Peace Fund, and on the board of the Center for Global Development, amongst other illustrious roles, Kaberuka has had a long career in international trade and finance. He speaks to FORBES AFRICA from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, about the way forward in the current global economic crisis:

You have had a distinguished career bringing about major development and economic reforms, and even Rwanda’s economic recovery after the genocide. What are the lessons you can offer in overcoming our current challenges?

The first thing we teach young students of economics is that economics is about scarcity and it means trade-offs, or what we call optimization. And so, in terms