Tom Friedman had a column on African poverty in the April 20 NYT (somehow it slipped under the radar of the blogosphere--the Times Select firewall perhaps). Karol Boudreaux follows it up with a letter in today's NYT.

From Friedman:

Africa needs many things, but most of all it needs capitalists who can start and run legal companies. More Bill Gates, fewer foundations. People grow out of poverty when they create small businesses that employ their neighbors. Nothing else lasts.

A good example of what happens when you combine patient capital, talent and innovation in Africa is the Kenyan company Advanced Bio-Extracts (ABE), headed by Patrick Henfrey. He and his partners put together a fascinating group of both white and black African farmers and scientists to build the first company in Africa to cultivate the green leafy plant artemisia, often called sweet wormwood, and transform it into pharmaceutical grade artemisinin - a botanical extract that is the key ingredient in the new generation of low-cost, effective malaria treatments commonly known as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Malaria still kills nearly 1 million people in Africa every year, more than HIV-AIDS.

From Boudreaux (via Cafe Hayek):

Africa's leaders have the power to encourage patient capitalism (where returns are 5 to 10 percent and payback is over a longer period of time) by reducing barriers to businesses, by improving tenure security for both men and women, and by respecting indigenous institutions and customs.

Policies that push entrepreneurs into the informal sector, promote tenure insecurity, limit women's property rights and are based on central planning rather than decentralized experimentation will only stymie progress.