The Africa Competitiveness Report 2015 was prepared by a joint team comprised of Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Ciara Browne, Caroline Galvan, and Attilio Di Battista, from the World Economic Forum; John Speakman, Barak Hoffman, Sebastian Sáez, and Miles McKenna from the World Bank; Issa Faye, Jennifer Mbabazi Moyo, El-hadj Mamadou Bah, and Audrey Verdier-Chouchane from the African Development Bank; and Anthony O’Sullivan, Carlos Conde, and Philipp Heinrigs from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The work was carried out under the general direction of Richard Samans, Managing Director at the World Economic Forum; Marcos Bonturi, Director, Global Relations Secretariat, OECD; Anabel Gonzales, Senior Director of Global Trade and Competitiveness Practice; Shantayana Devarajan, Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa Region, and Francisco Ferreira, Chief Economist for the Africa Region at the World Bank; and Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, Acting Chief Economist and Vice President, Economics Complex at the African Development Bank.

We are similarly grateful to all staff from our institutions who have worked so hard to make this joint report possible and who have provided comments at different stages of the report preparation.

In particular, we thank Issa Faye, Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, and Abebe Shimeles from the African Development Bank for their invaluable guidance; Charlotte Karagueuzian (Consultant) and Anna von Wachenfelt (Consultant) for their excellent research assistance; and Zuzana Brixiova (peer reviewer).

We would like to acknowlege the contribution of the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department of the African Development Bank, particularly Chiji Ojukwu (Director for Agriculture and Agro-Industry), Xavier Boulenger, Joseph Coompson, Ken Johm, Benedict Kanu, and Damian Onyema, who provided comments on the chapter; administrative assistance was also provided by Rhoda Bangurah, Nana Cobbina, and Abiana Nelson.

From the OECD, we thank Carole Biau, Karim Dahou, Przemyslaw Kowalski, Iza Lejarraga, Javier Lopez Gonzalez, Idil Mohamed, and Henri-Bernard Solignac-Lecomte.

From the World Bank, we thank Paul Brenton, Shantayana Devarajan, Francisco Ferreira, and Anabel Gonzalez for their enthusiastic support of the World Bank’s participation in The Africa Competitiveness Report.

We also thank our peer reviewers: César Calderón, Melise Jaud, and William Maloney for their extremely helpful guidance.

We similarly appreciate the inputs and suggestions we received from Ejaz Ghani, Claire Hollweg, and Anand Rajaram.

We would like to express our gratitude to Maria Alyanak and Veronique Gorce for their invaluable administrative support.

Laura Juliana Higuera Ardila, Esteban Rojas P., and Annoula Rysova provided excellent research assistance.

From the World Economic Forum, we thank Francesca Bianchi, Oliver Cann, Benjii Coetzee, Gemma Corrigan, Reuben Coulter, Roberto Crotti, Lisa Dreier, Gaëlle Dreyer, Lorin Fries, Thierry Geiger, Tania Gutknecht, Elsie Kanza, Kristin Keveloh, Vanessa Moungar, Patrick McGee, Anu Paasiaro, Pedro Rodrigues De Almeida; Cecilia Serin, Huguette Umutoni, and Saadia Zahidi.

Copy editing: Hope Steele
Online report: Design Resources Ltd
Design and layout: Neil Weinberg