![Construction workers take a break in Liberia.](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/africa-economy-debt-crisis-01162024-1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
Many countries across Africa are experiencing an economic malaise. What began as a slump for commodity exporters in 2014 became a general slowdown with the shocks of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. But like Africa’s last “lost decade” in the 1980s, a moment of crisis could be an opportunity to set a different economic course.